To put it in maybe a more accessible way, can we anchor ourselves in our actual experience? Also, um das zugänglicher zu beschreiben, können wir uns verankern in unserer tatsächlichen Erfahrung. Geben wir mehr mentalem Gewicht oder erfahrbarem Gefühl dieser Erfahrung. unmittelbaren Erfahrung. Now it sounds funny to say that because why wouldn't our actual experience be our actual experience? Das klingt echt merkwürdig, denn warum soll unsere tatsächliche Erfahrung nicht unsere tatsächliche Erfahrung sein?

[01:01]

Because thoughts are so powerful and so convincing and so identified with self. Denn Gedanken sind so überzeugend, so verwickelt mit unserer Identifikation That we hardly know what our actual experience is a lot, we know what we're thinking about. We do a lot of damage to our body simply because we identify more with our thoughts. I'm right in the middle, but if I keep going, we won't have a break for about 20 minutes, so maybe we should have a break. No. Go on.

[02:01]

I'll go on after the break. Thank you. Some people might have hatched to take a break, even if I didn't call for it. The daily practice has been disrupted for me, but I... I couldn't... I couldn't... Oh, no, it's all right.

[03:17]

I'm just kidding. Me too. I'm on the way. So maybe we can take this phrase anchored in our own experience as a way to check up on our practice, as a way to feel our practice. Now, If we're going to anchor ourselves in our experience, we have to have some experience that we can put the anchor in.

[04:37]

It's OK. I mean, if you try to anchor yourself, for example, in your thoughts, which in fact most of us do, or tie ourselves up to the dock of thoughts, the dock is always breaking, floating off. doesn't give us much a real sense of being anchored.

[05:38]

So what is the experience that we can anchor ourselves in? Well, first of all, as I've said, our own aliveness. Our breath and body. And that is, you know, something that daily practices. Anchoring yourself, or at least coming back over and over again to breath and body. The inner experience of the body and the body as activity. But the present is not a container. The present is change itself. So, as everything is changing, again, how do we anchor ourselves?

[07:05]

And what is the present anyway? Well, it has a thingness quality. But if we examine the thingness of the present very carefully, you see that it's changing, and it's inseparable from your mind and perception of it. So the present really, in our actual experience, the present is a presence, not a thingness. And also you can always ask if you want to. good thing to ask, how long is the present?

[08:13]

It seems like it's, you know, continuous. But you know that the The bug that was out in the yard this morning is not there now, probably. If you think a bit about past and future, the present seems to have virtually no duration. How can it have a duration? It's always future or past. But we do have an experience of duration, of the present as duration. But that present as duration is duration itself. is established in our own senses and mind.

[09:23]

So in our actual experience, the present is presence. Is presencing. Gegenwart sein. Gegenwart sein. Gegenwart. Is it really that? It's not that. To me, the present, well, anyway. Yeah, it's so exotic, this language you all speak. I like it. So when we look at this experience we anchor ourselves in, this immediacy, we should know this immediacy very, very well.

[10:31]

Und wir sollten diese Unmittelbarkeit sehr, sehr, sehr gut kennen. And daily practice, again, we can say, is knowing this immediacy very well. Und tägliche Praxis, wieder, heißt, diese Unmittelbarkeit sehr genau kennen. Yeah, and we can... And the teachings arise from this immediacy. All the Buddhist teachings are descriptions of this immediacy. Or entries into this immediacy. Examples of this immediacy. And if you don't know this immediacy very, very well, you won't understand the teachings. Only when you're rooted in this immediacy Nur wenn ihr in dieser Unmittelbarkeit verankert seid.

[11:56]

And the immediacy is lots of people or few people or a sunny day or a rainy day. Und die Unmittelbarkeit sind viele Leute, wenig Leute, ein sonniger Tag, ein regnerischer Tag. Or a monastery or downtown Times Square. Oder ein Kloster oder Stadtmitte Times Square. It is the immediacy which is your actual life. And it's your presence. It's actually more your presence than whether it's Times Square or a forest. So when time I mean, immediacy is inseparable from the environment, the situation. But when you discover that it's primarily presence and not present, then you're anchored more in your own mind, in your own presence,

[13:05]

in the presences arises through your own mind and senses. And your mind and moods become very stable in any situation. Because you're anchored in the immediacy as presence, not as a container. And one of the gates of this, of course, is your breath. And one of the techniques is bringing attention, the mind's attention, to what you're doing. And a deeper practice is to bring awareness which arises from the body Into the presence, into the presencing.

[14:26]

I think it's useful to force the language, I'm forcing the language, I'm stretching the language. If I use technical terms, or if there were technical terms, The technical terms would be outside your experience. But if I stretch English... And she has to even stretch German further because it has to be stretched English into German. Then you're more likely to feel your own experience stretched. Because technical terms take the experience out of context. So I almost never use technical terms.

[16:19]

I make technical terms. We could say anchoring yourself in your experience is a kind of technical term. To anchor yourself in your experience, we could shorten it to something and it would be a technical term. But even then I'm trying to take the stuff of our mind The language is bodily stuff and mentally stuff. I'm trying to, by feeling it in my own body, I'm trying to take the more bodily aspects of language And stretch them into this experience.

[17:26]

So the present is presencing. We can sort of think of it as a basket. A basket that's actually always in the process of being woven. Being woven in front of us, around us, through us. And it's being woven from our mind and body. It's being woven from time and space. When we say, how are you? Good morning. What a beautiful day. We're weaving time and space. We're pointing at you. How are you? And good morning.

[18:40]

It's the time we are in, we share. And what a beautiful day. So we actually are always intuitively weaving mind and space and body and time. And when you... And we're weaving the duration of the present. And we actually have something to do with the duration of the present. There are various kinds of times, you all know that. What a different time Sophia lives in. And maybe for you, from two or three to ten or twelve is almost half your life.

[19:43]

So these different times are not just caught in childhood. They're perhaps caught in the pace of childhood. But different paces will reveal different times right now. So we're weaving different times together right now. And our entry into the duration of the present can vary. And sometimes time almost stops.

[20:57]

And the duration seems expanded. That's also the mind of picking the flower with a tigger down below. Das ist auch der Geist, der die Blume pflückt, während Tiger unten sitzt. It's not just you're one kind of real brave guy and you've got some brain damage and you don't know the tiger's down there. Und das ist nicht, dass ihr so ein tapferer Typ seid mit ein bisschen Gehirnschaden und der eine Blume pflückt und nicht weiß, dass drunter der Tiger sitzt. You actually are more identified with a kind of stopped time which is the basis of the presence of the present. So to see, to really be in the midst of the weaving of the basket of the present.

[21:58]

You need to find the pace of this weaving. Objects, perceptions are woven together. Moods and memory are woven together. observation, thoughts, insights our digestion, how our stomach feels it's all woven together and we see the weaving And the unweaving. And the re-weaving. And we see the spaces between the weave.

[23:10]

The mystery of the spaces between the weave that can't be woven. And we feel a kind of wideness or expansion into this mystery between the we. But at the same time, we're continuously weaving. Aber gleichzeitig flechten und wägen wir unablässig. It says in the Book of Serenity, Continuously creation runs her loom and shuttle. Continuously creation runs her loom and shuttle.

[24:15]

Unablässig Good. I think so. Shuttles are these little boats. They go, yeah, double boats, yes. Weaving the ancient brocade. drawing in the forms of spring. Now, these teachings arise, as I said, from the immediacy of of presence.

[25:19]

And they can really only be understood or grokked or gut. When you yourself are in this immediacy anchored with no alternative, with nothing to be added. Then suddenly, yes, creation continuously runs her loom and shuttle. Now weaving this ancient brocade and incorporating the forms of spring. And maybe we come close to knowing that the southern branch owns the whole of spring, as also does the northern.

[26:34]

And maybe we come close to knowing And between meeting and not meeting there's no difference. Now this is why one of the reasons we can say why it's said that Zen is a transmission outside the scriptures. Without dependence on words and letters. Directly pointing seeing into our own true nature and realizing Buddhahood.

[28:01]

Now this is attributed to Bodhidharma, but it actually came much later historically. But it still is one of those things that, you know, it's a little corny, but at the same time catches, our practice and our teaching. Because even if you bring a teaching like Between meeting and no meeting, not meeting, there's no difference. It's only a teaching when it opens up in this anchored immediacy. ist das nur eine Lehre, wenn sich das in dieser Unmittelbarkeit auch öffnet.

[29:18]

So we're not following or depending on words and letters. Das heißt, wir folgen und hängen nicht ab von Worten und Buchstaben. The words and letters are only teaching when there are our own actual experience. And the words and letters only teach when we have our own experience with it. Yes. Do I need to say anything more? Just to sit. Until we are anchored in our own experience.

[30:23]

Until we know this immediacy very, very well. This immediacy which is our own awareness and presence. And within which the teachings arise. And whether whatever Buddhism is all about, it is within which Buddhahood arises. Not even as a religion or a teaching, but as our simple experience. When we are able to look into and accept how we actually exist.

[31:34]

How this changing present is us, is actually us. And we find our own strength and power and nourishment in this immediacy. And our own ease. So I think that is enough, but let's sit for a little bit. Oh, my God.

[38:02]

Oh, my God. anchored in this immediate presence, when we know no other alternative, this immediacy opens up

[40:43]

covers everything. When in your mind you have alternatives, listen to me, you see, shrinks to a tiny bubble and disappears. To just sit anchored.

[42:15]

In this immediacy. In this presence. This inclusive presence. Which I feel you as well as myself. So we have a few extra minutes to enjoy this day outside as well as inside.

[45:59]

Thank you for this morning.

[46:00]

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