People ask me, how are you? When I went by the breakfast place, I said, sehr gut. Als ich da an dem Frühstücksplatz vorbeigegangen bin, haben sie mich gefragt, wie geht es Ihnen? And then, sehr gut, no, that's not right. I said, sehr gut, instead of sehr gut. Da habe ich sehr gut gesagt, statt sehr gut. Anyway, very good. Well, this seminar has evolved over the years. And twice or three times in Wien the last few days. I met persons who said, oh, I came to your seminar 15 years ago or something.

[01:06]

Like Vera at the opera. And then they apologized to me. Why are you apologizing? I think it's wonderful you came. But it looks like there are some actually new people here who I haven't met before. So, yeah. So I'm in a way having a conversation that's 20 years old with some of you. Now how do I include those of you who are newer? As much as possible, I don't want to... Interrupt this double decade conversation.

[02:26]

Soweit es möglich ist, möchte ich dieses zwei Jahrzehnte währende Gespräch nicht zu sehr unterbrechen. But on the other hand, since we only meet usually once a year, aber weil wir uns nur einmal im Jahr treffen, whether Guni and Walter coming, Also, dear, it's the first time Guni's not been here. First time I know. Yeah, okay. Um... But, you know, we all don't, since we only meet once a year, we all don't remember everything, so I can repeat myself with some freedom. But you can help me in guiding me in what would be useful to speak about you.

[03:31]

And it's... And we usually start with half an hour of zazen, meditation. And some of you may not be used to meditating for so long. And I hate to force people to meditate. So I don't know.

[04:56]

You have to tell me what you want. And those of you who are new to me, I don't like knowing names particularly. At least at first, because I like knowing a nameless presence. And just get a feel for you. Because in a way this is what I found myself doing. In trying to bring into our consideration, the yogic worldview as exemplified in Zen Buddhism.

[06:22]

Now last evening I spoke about And let me say that it would be nice if this morning we could have some discussion perhaps of last evening. And what... Good morning. And... It's a railroad station here. A discussion which would also help the people, persons who weren't here last night.

[07:41]

Get a feel for what we spoke about. You know, I almost never give evening talks anymore. I don't know quite why, but I don't anymore. And except for this seminar. And I discovered last night I'm somehow scripted. To think of an evening talk as if it should be a full dinner. I don't know why I think that way. And I feel I should fill your mental stomachs and give you something to feel indigestible during the night.

[09:05]

But when I speak in the morning or afternoon, it's more like I'm just discovering something with you and not speaking to you. It's more like a Buddhist brunch. Okay. So what I'd like to explore with you, what I spoke to you about last night, was this sense that, part of it was this sense that if we're going to look at these two worldviews, which have been developed rather independently,

[10:06]

the oriental and western worldviews. And more subtly different than is usually acknowledged and understood. And since I've been, because of the life I happen to have, been thrust into it, I've had to learn to try to swim in both world views. Or I would have drowned, almost, something like that. So the worldviews that we're born with the culture we're born into, are pretty much invisible.

[11:32]

Taken for granted. As reality itself. And my usual example is that we assume that space separates. And the space that is separated created by this separation. It's like a neutral container, an envelope.

[12:32]

It's like a what? Neutral container. You know, we should be sitting closer together. This is terrible to be so far apart, but it's okay for now. And it'd be nice if the circle, anyway, all right. I'm lonely. container envelope. And the objects within this container are entities. Okay. But in the yogic way of looking at things, Space connects.

[13:50]

The space in which connection occurs arises through the connections. I'm particularly fond of Matisse's paintings because he seems to paint a space which turns into objects. I like these paintings by Matisse because he paints as if the room transforms into objects. While Picasso, for me, paints the auras, the objects and their auras, which is more like a container space. And in this space, space which itself is an activity.

[15:09]

The objects are also not entities but activities. Now this distinction can be explored with a considerable subtlety and detail. I think that we can do some of this exploration as you Now I speak about this Because partly my own sense of the subtlety and mystery of a constellation work...

[16:18]

What kind of knowing is going on in a constellation? Okay. Okay. Now someone asked me, said, maybe I could speak about the five skandhas. And maybe that could be a useful review. And we could think about the five skandhas from the point of view of doing meditation. Now, let me say that when you do zazen, If you're really doing Zazen, it's not your Western body which is doing Zazen.

[17:45]

It's not the body you've grown up in and with that's doing zazen. It's a body that becomes zazen when it re-articulates what the body is. And really zazen is nothing, I mean it does make you calmer and all that stuff. But it's a way of entering and absorbing the world by, yeah, okay, let me say that much.

[18:56]

So part of the re-education, in our case, of the body, um, um, can be understood through the five skandhas. Or can be understood to make it very simple. Something, the clarity and simplicity of which I've been emphasizing maybe last year too. which is that zazen is a posture or a position which becomes a posture, through the concept, don't move.

[20:12]

And Zazen in the Zen sense, Buddhist sense, doesn't exist without the concept, don't move. So it's, you know, in a simple sense, zazen, you don't think. Well, you hold the concept. Eventually it's just the way you sit, but you start out holding the concept, don't move. Which includes don't scratch and things like that. It allows breathing. Some movement is allowed.

[21:35]

But you try to stop identifying with discursive thinking. So the movement of discursive thinking ceases. And then the identification with discursive thinking Once you've stopped identifying with discursive thinking, you can sit for hours, sit as long as your body lets you sit, because it's a little bit uncomfortable to be like a pretzel. Now, as you develop a skill at not moving, We can call it still sitting or something like that.

[22:57]

You get to know not moving. You get to know the not moving mind. The mind that almost doesn't react. There could be a huge explosion outside. The body doesn't jump. don't react, just there. So as you come to know not moving, the not moving mind, and the body, which of course your heart is beating and so forth, But within that you feel the not moving simultaneously.

[24:14]

Something like you can feel the not moving of the tree in its trunk and see the moving of the tree in its leaves. So as you come to know not moving, you begin to know not moving in everything you see. You look at a tree and you see the not, feel the not moving of the tree. And when you're with another person, you feel they're moving, but you also feel, which is often invisible to them, they're not moving. So in the not moving mind and body, It's not simply just a not moving in relationship to moving.

[25:46]

It's a not moving that flows with the body. not moving of the world. The world flows differently through its non-moving layer or dimension. then it flows to its moving dimension. So when you're with a person and you feel their not moving dimension as well as their moving dimension, There's an ancient kind of feeling of the person, kind of like some kind of iconic human being has appeared. There's an ancient kind of feeling of the person,

[26:49]

And if one thing we could say is meant by Buddha nature. And if you are in a group and awake to your not moving, you awaken the not moving, to some extent, in each person you're with. And another dimension of their history and experience, beingness, appears. Now let me give you... I think that we should leave the discussion and the five skandhas until after our break.

[28:34]

But let me use... Last night I spoke about collaborative attitudes. Not thinking, but an attitude or a concept. that participates in what you do. That not only participates in what you do, but participates in in the myriad of the 10,000 things, that participates in your endlessly subtle circumstance. Okay, so the example I want to use right now is I've often mentioned to you, which I can use then as something iconic example.

[30:07]

That we can all remember. And see its ramifications over time. Okay. Which is the bow. And... the bowers are putting your hands together and saying, hi there. Very good. But it's also, if you do it the way it's articulated, really how it's developed. It's a re-articulation of the body.

[31:20]

Because even if you just bow like this, That brief vow is an encapsulation of the full vow. This re-articulation of the body through bowing is so important in Tibetan Buddhism. Before certain teachings occur, you have to bow 100,000 times, full to the floor with your arms stretched out. This new articulation of the body through the bowing is so important that, for example, in Tibetan Buddhism, before you receive certain teachings, you bow 100,000 times in a complete bowing, with your arms stretched out on the ground.

[32:36]

And Tsung Tsang is a name that a Korean teacher used to have, a Zen teacher, used to have people bow 100 times every morning or something. Yes, and Tsung Tsang is Do you know what it was, how much? Around 100, yeah. You know, that's a lot of bowing. Hey! And I bow with Suzuki Roshi 25 times on a certain anniversary all my life now. I didn't get that with Suzuki. I bow to Suzuki, or with Suzuki, even though he's dead, on an anniversary 25 times. So there's a sense, the concept is something like from your heels or from your feet, through the top of your head you're connected with everything.

[33:48]

So with each step or with standing you're bringing the subtlety of the earth up through your body. In Zen we call it what? The earth. The earth, yeah. Yeah. We call it in Zen heel breathing. And this is breathing as a concept of a pulse coming in and releasing.

[34:55]

So you feel the connectivity of the earth coming up through your body as if it were almost a breath. And when your modality of mind is correct or receptive, This energy accumulates in you. Nourishes you. And when you bow, you take your hands together. At this lowest chakra.

[35:56]

You bring it up through each chakra. Yeah. Until you get to the heart chakra. Throat. And then you move it up into a kind of shared space. And then classically, if you're bowing to another person. Yeah. you're bowing into this subtle body space with the other person. Now, if you read about in magazines about body language, The several times I've read such articles.

[37:01]

Over decades, so I haven't read them too often. They present... Body language is a subtle form of thinking language. We are an extension of thinking language. Or as a body language that can be spoken about in English or in a language. eine Körpersprache, über die man mit der Sprache sprechen kann.

[38:05]

But the subtle body language I'm speaking about can only exist as a subtle body language. It has nothing to do with an extension of regular language. Die subtile Körpersprache, über die ich spreche, die kann sich eigentlich nur in dieser subtilen Körpersprache selbst ereignen, und man kann über sie nicht in einer So when you develop the sense of the bow moving through these kind of subtle body fields, you're actually re-articulating your body in terms of a particular worldview. And when I talk to long-time Hindu practitioners, they have actually articulated their subtle body in a different way than we do in Buddhism.

[39:07]

And they tend to think theirs is the real way. But none of them are the real way. Is the real way to speak about something in German or in English or Chinese or Russian? Well, they're just different ways of articulating the world. And I know well only one way. Or perhaps two, but primarily now, this Buddhist Zen way of doing it. So, by this simple bow, Whether it's done with the full length of the body or just like this.

[40:36]

You're re-educating your body. You're articulating your body in a new way. If this collaborative conceptual framework is present. And then, you know, if you, as one does in a monastery, in every circumstance, you bow to the other person. You develop a process outside of language and thinking of mutual embodiment.

[41:45]

And I would call these ritual enactments. And so my own observation of constellation therapy work is that Different people do it differently, but there's an overlapping development of what I would call enactment rituals. Which establish a shared embodiment. And I would say if the leader or some people in it are strong enough,

[43:11]

they can intentionally or consciously or non-consciously establish through their own embodiment a shift in everyone's embodiment. Then you've got to have the skills to keep the feedback loop going as long as the constellation lasts. I don't know if any of this is true. I just made it all up. You can tell me. That's everybody.

[44:14]

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