We live in the medium of our consciousness. It's the medium for perception. For memory, associations. It's the medium for our psychology, and so forth. Certainly, at the center of Zen practice, Buddhist practice, is to notice this medium, So yesterday the topic you chose was primarily noticing, isn't that right?

[01:05]

So I would like you to help me notice what you noticed. Also möchte ich gerne, dass ihr mir helft zu bemerken, was ihr bemerkt habt. Oh, now I can listen. Und jetzt möchte ich ganz klar. Yes. Wir haben darüber gesprochen, dass wir bemerken, worauf unsere Aufmerksamkeit gerichtet ist. We talked about that we notice whereupon our attention is directed and focused. Mm-hmm. In every life it's often absorbed from the things around us and we just sink under. We sink under. We drown in what? In noticing? No, the circumstances of everyday life. Oh. Sounds unpleasant.

[02:24]

Yeah, go ahead. And in meditation we often sink or drown in our thoughts or in our emotions. Also doubts and inferiority feelings can become quite strong. But still we try and make an effort to come back to breath. One participant told that feelings of anger and hatred, sort of to cope with that quite well. Feelings of anger and hatred that one could cope with well?

[03:24]

No, she could cope with during meditation quite well. And during everyday life, when this curtain of thoughts is seldomly getting up, the world becomes something glistening. The world becomes something listening. Sounds better. Yeah.

[04:26]

Okay. Thanks. Vielleicht kann ich dazu noch ergänzen. Wir haben festgestellt, oder einige von uns haben geäußert, dass during meditation that one tries to perceive oneself and that this perception first arises through a certain interplay of thoughts and body feelings. I would like to add that some of us remarked that during meditation they try to perceive themselves and this perceiving just comes into effect through a play of thoughts and feelings, right?

[05:34]

Yes, it's like you are aware, aim to be aware of yourself, and in that moment where you let go of this, something else comes up, and then you realize that's the moment where presence is there without thoughts anymore. And this only happens when this body feeling is there. It comes more through the body than through the mind. So this feeling of presence in meditation is for some of us, or some have expressed that it is created by a certain letting go of this goal thought that you have to be or have to do something within meditation.

[06:37]

And that it is created by this body feeling, Yes, where you just sit. Yes, okay. Thank you. Jos? We also tried to collect our experiences in group 1. Henry? And came to the conclusion that observing the observation intensivierung in der wachheit der momentanen We try to put together our experiences and we notice or remark that observing the observation led to a feeling of feeling more awake.

[07:48]

Observing, observing makes you feel more awake. needs to be a way towards healing, ascension and so on. And I would like to add, and I would like to emphasize, at least the idea that there is an observer who can build up a distance to this perception. And I would like to add that the observer has to have a certain distance to that which is observed. And the ability to direct this process. Out of the manifoldness of impressions which sort of stream upon us, filtering out the relevant things.

[08:53]

And that also there's a sort of judgment or valuing. And as I said, we make this observation especially when we sort of fell out of the role of the observer. Sort of remarking retrospectively, there was something which I didn't then really observe well. And we also noticed that it needs a certain energy, a constant contact of energy to stay in that more awake state of mind.

[10:24]

They hope that this will change, being more advanced, so that it gives you more energy. And also we agreed that the intention to do that, stay that way, that doesn't help very much. You have to have this intention. You have to build up again and again and realize again and again. Then the question was, what effect does this practice have? This is quite a thorough meeting you had there. Go ahead. One of three was that A talk among a relationship which sort of takes a burden away from a relationship, eases a relationship.

[12:00]

Probably in a reduction of the unpleasant emotions like anger. And an intensifying of perceptions towards more clarity. And the wish, how could we anchor this intention more bodily? Good. Well, just one comment is that most of the energy is the reestablishment of the observant mind.

[13:06]

not the maintaining of it. At some point that's the case. The constant needing to re-establish the observing mind, which there's a resistance to, is where the energy is. And that's one of the differences enlightenment makes. Or let's say enlightenment experience. It turns you around so you no longer resist the observant state of mind. It turns you around, so to speak, and you don't resist this observing spirit. Good, thank you. Yes. Two questions that came up in our group.

[14:09]

Wenn wir bemerken und nicht sofort einteilen wollen in Glück, Schlecht und Nicht, Lügen und Mögen, sondern in Akzeptieren, was für ein Handwerkzeug haben wir dann mit der Akzeptanz? Weil nur zu sagen, das akzeptiere ich jetzt, das reicht uns nicht, was haben wir da für Möglichkeiten? Das war eine Frage. One question is that in dealing with acceptance of good, bad, what tools do we have? It doesn't help or it isn't enough to say just we want not to judge or not to choose, but what tools can there be to do this? And the other question was, what is it at all to bring attention to attention? That you are attentive, that was still clear to all of us, but what do I do or how do I do that when I bring attention to attention?

[15:14]

Second question was how to bring attention to attention that we are and can be attentive was clear to everyone. What is this extra bringing attention to attention? That wasn't quite clear in our group. The observer to the observed. The observer to the observed. Aufmerksamkeit. Okay. Good. Thank you. Yeah? In our group, it was interesting that nobody actually had ever practiced noticing before. We practiced mindfulness and we practiced attention, but we didn't actually practice noticing. So, I was interested in finding a definition which makes a difference to those other practices, but not seemed... Right to me is that noticing is the activity of making apparent to me what is in my consciousness or in my awareness.

[16:32]

And what I mean by that is consciousness and awareness always has contents, but these contents are not necessarily aware to me. So, for example, I could have a diffused feeling of threat and it might have a realistic background, but I can do both. I can ignore it, not make it apparent to me, while there's some skill where I let it arise. That's my understanding of noticing, to be present to both, that is, to consciousness and awareness, to get a subtle glimpse maybe of a bodily feeling of something being there, giving it a chance, and really also enhancing it and let it evolve and come up. And that's somewhat different to me than just to practice attention to something which is already there, or to practice mindfulness towards my breath and my feelings or more rough categories.

[17:42]

In our group, no one said that he practiced something like remarking actively, as he has practiced attention or attention in his life so far. Then I was interested in what makes a difference when you introduce the term remarking. What seemed to be noticeable to me was the activity with which I let the content of my consciousness or consciousness appear. I assume that as long as I live, my consciousness and my consciousness are always content, but I am not. all these contents in clear. And the contents can also be very subtle, very fine. So there has to be an activity, also an activity that one can cultivate,

[18:51]

How do we notice something which we've never noticed before? It's easy to notice something which we've noticed often. but how do we notice things which we haven't ever noticed, and how do we give them chance? Thank you. A little birdie told me.

[19:55]

A little birdie told me that you might give a report. Yes. We were the English speaking group. And we had several things noticed or remarked or personal experiences. One was that this is... The difference between when you're in meditation or in a surrounding like this and while you're at work and sometimes when you're more open and have this more field-like experience in the world. You can't function, you can't work when you have to have a focused mind, have to make decisions. This doesn't work so well. It isn't easy to, or probably not possible to uphold that. We talked about...

[20:58]

noticing, for example, like how a field changes, for example, if one person comes to the group and how that was a sort of and noticing while taking place during the group session, for example, one person talking about how boring life is, for example, and then in a second sort of round relating something personal like how interesting or how rich and vivid childhood was and how that, for example, just – A different telling sort of changed completely the atmosphere, the field, the vividness. It was sort of a direct noticing. And we... one person told how we can do things with this, how we can lean inwardly, backwards and change the field or the focus and sort of like in an aquarium or in water, you move like that.

[23:04]

There were a few more remarks, which at the moment I don't remember quite clearly, but others may help me. Okay. Is that all the groups? Probably. There's six. You can't hide behind your wife. In our group, we talked about the difference between being alone with yourself, whether in a special atmosphere or in your personal life, that it is easier to notice something.

[24:11]

And if you are in a situation where you are forced to work or interact, then this possibility is missing, because it is more difficult to notice things. One thing was that we found that it's easier to notice things when you're alone, when you're on your own, and when you are forced to interact in a group at work, that is much more difficult. And during normal life we focus our attention on one point and we sort of jump from point to point. And then in meditation it's also like stepping back and then noticing or perceiving a larger area, so to say. One of the conditions that this can happen is that we don't have the intention to make this happen, but rather let it happen without so much intention.

[25:34]

Yeah. Is there anyone who wants to add to this or say something personal or in addition? That means, for example, how can I find out when a thought arises? And often it is so that we have to find out somewhere, I have been thinking all the time, but the point where it arose, that is very difficult to grasp, especially with thoughts or feelings. The discussion went further then and it came to the difficulty of identifying or noticing when an emotion or a thought starts being in it.

[26:50]

The noticing that it takes place is easy, fairly easy. But the beginning, to get before the beginning or get the beginning or notice the beginning, that is extremely difficult. Some people reported about meditation, for example in Sashin, there are situations when the Doan, before he hits the bell, there is a change in the feeling in the womb, and we know that The bell will be hit soon. Yes, thanks. I was in another group that has not said anything yet.

[28:06]

We tried to understand the question at the beginning. In our group we dealt with the question itself and we had difficulty with a different understanding of what is noticing, what we don't understand as noticing. Some of us have the experience, or maybe all of us, I don't know exactly, that noticing is something that happens suddenly, that there is a change that is ahead of us, which we then notice. And many of us had the thought that noticing is something which happens suddenly or happens when you notice a change.

[29:18]

And the question came up, what is practicing? What is practice? There were different definitions. One that was a bit new to me was that our state of mind One which was new to me was that we try to alter our state of mind. We order our state of mind, we plan to change our state of mind, and how can we... Can you tell me that again, please?

[30:51]

How can we put what we experience as a sudden coincidence into practice? How can we that which comes accidentally or suddenly, how can we transform this into a practice? Therefore it was important that we bring an attention into that. And attention. Was in our group something like a wrestling with a conglomerate of thoughts? And sometimes it is really difficult to express oneself, to find out how one's own thought is going, to understand what someone else is saying, to understand a dense web of language, thoughts and attempts.

[32:04]

and difficult even to articulate what one's own thoughts were and to understand what the others' thoughts were, and really a complex and intricate conglomerate of thoughts. I also noticed in retrospect that the ringing and the language of such experiences or thoughts Also I noticed that this like wrestling for the speech, for the words, I don't know that for long. Words like mindfulness, awareness, neither exist in German, nor in Swiss German, I don't think so.

[33:10]

That was never part of my childhood, of my youth. My first connection with Zen practice, I got to know these words, and sometimes I'm very, very inexperienced and uneducated, and searching in... Words like mindfulness and awareness in German, Swiss German, in my childhood, I never heard of them until I started with them in practice. For me it's difficult to bring my experience and the language or the words into practice. Yeah, together. One expresses the other. You mean because your experience somehow was outside the categories of such things as mindfulness and now it's hard to join them together?

[34:15]

I know the word. I don't know the words. No experiences, but can't connect the words. Swiss-German mindfulness doesn't exist. The language doesn't exist. So how do you speak about things that for such a long time weren't in those years? Perhaps it worked and I had my experiences, but I … Yeah, that's obvious. I don't have any verbal and thinking experiences with that. And this was also … we could feel that also in the group, how difficult it is to speak. Yeah, that's good.

[35:17]

One question popped up also. Is noticing a matter of this moment or can you retrospectively and looking back notice? To some extent you can, yes. And the practice of reviewing past lives doesn't have to be thought of as reincarnation. It can be thought of as a process of noticing your past lives within this life. And to let the past life happen again, to look back, and that doesn't necessarily have to be the same as reincarnation, but within this life, a practice, to let the past life happen again, or to look back.

[36:21]

Yes? Isn't that the prerequisite to learn? Isn't this the condition for learning? Isn't what the condition for learning? To have the ability to analyze the situation which was in the past and try to notice things which I hadn't noticed in the moment as I was in the situation. Well, I don't know if I'd apply it to all categories of learning, but it's certainly, in psychotherapy, it's certainly, for example, a way we learn about ourselves. Would you say? In this context, what is the function of remembering?

[37:28]

Okay. Nothing but the big topic today. Yes. So I was in this group and I had a feeling that this observing mind is always there but I'm not conscious of it. And I had the example, because I had a lucid dream at night, And I was fast asleep and I woke up and I had the pictures and I had the feeling that I was asleep. And I was also in this group and I had the feeling that this observing spirit and non-thinking spirit is always there at some level.

[38:29]

But I wasn't aware of it. And I had the example that I had a dream in which I remembered and saw the pictures again in the morning and had the feeling of it. But I was asleep. I didn't hit myself. Okay. Mr. Neumann. Yes. The question was also, it seems to me to be interesting to mention, to bring the noticing to the noticing, do I have to make a selection here? In what sense do I actually notice? With the ears, the eyes, the sense of touch? Or is there a universal mind that can do everything at the same time? The question was interesting for me that when noticing the noticing, do I have to make a choice before with which sense I notice, with the ear, with the nose, or is there a universal noticing which notices everything? Forget it.

[39:35]

All of the above and below. Yes. Isn't then the term of the unconscious? Isn't. Is there in Zen the term of the unconscious? Does there exist the term of the unconscious? Not exactly. Nicht genau. What is these mumblings in the back here? When you say the term unconsciousness, doesn't exactly exist. So, does noticing have to be a conscious noticing, or can it be like a physical noticing?

[40:40]

Because I've never practiced talking about experiences in saying, but just practicing. So this was like a new experience, but it sort of mixed me up in a way that I found myself in Satsang in the evening in my thoughts instead of in my body. Yeah. And I'm not sure if... We can get into a state of mindfulness just by practising, just by having... Just through practising, just through the physical thing. Yes, I understand. German, please. I never wanted to do a practice like this, where you exchange ideas about what you do in practice.

[41:44]

And for me it was a very moving experience to think about what was going on in the group. And I really only had the desire to get out of my head, to get into the body, to get out of the breath. That's why I asked, do we need a conscious observation to be able to notice, or is it not enough to simply practice and to notice through the body and through physical experience? Well, I would like to respond to all this, but as much as I can, it's quite exciting for me actually to listen to you.

[42:58]

But it's time for a break. If I start now, I'm afraid that your knees will be in your ears. Yeah, shall I? So, after you give your knees some coffee or tea, I will come back. And I'd like...

[43:26]

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