Whether having a text like this is useful? Or does the text, in order to make sense, I hope the writing is reasonably clear, Oder ist der Text, um Sinn zu ergeben, und ich hoffe, dass das Geschriebene einigermaßen klar ist? Or does the text need me present to make it clear? Oder braucht der Text meine Präsenz, um klar zu sein? Yeah. So anyway, you had from the flip chart there, there were some questions, so I seem to be Yeah, maybe I can respond to some of them.

[01:02]

Yeah, anyway, yeah. Well, I'm ready. Okay, good. So the next question that I think we ended with that one. The next one we discussed yesterday is The question is, what is culture? What is culture? And I think the context in which it came up was that we discussed societal developments and all the way up to political stances and so forth aren't culture. But then... Well, they're all culture. This is alles kultur. I mean, in English, they're culture. Okay. but that isn't necessarily a world view or a world culture or a western culture or

[02:12]

But that doesn't, I wonder, so you would say that when you speak of East Asian cultures, the current, the societal decisions that are, let's say, happening in Japan, they are I mean, I don't know, I would say that they grow within a culture, but when you discuss culture in the way that you have done in the text, something else, other stances could grow from the same culture. Well, you can have, as Yonitz and somebody can testify, you have Romanian culture, right? Also wie Jonas zum Beispiel sagen kann, ihr habt eine rumänische Kultur. And your Romanian culture is a little different than Hungarian culture. Und eure rumänische Kultur ist ein bisschen anders als die ungarische Kultur. See, so there's lots of cultures. Also gibt es viele Kulturen.

[03:23]

Okay, good. Das nächste ist zu klein, ich kann das nicht lesen. So, okay, then the other thing we discussed is forms of knowledge or of insight. And that's also here, when we look at your text, how you say for a world to be definitively intelligible versus definitively experienceable. So then we looked at what are modalities of knowing and how would you distinguish the modality of knowing, of thinking,

[04:27]

from a modality of experiential knowledge. Let me ask, when you've read this, if you've read it, and was it readable? Did you get all the way through? No. No? No, we ended here. I see. Okay. You only get to there. Yeah. Okay. I mean, I think each of us read a little further, but in our group discussion up to here, that was enough to, you know, the session was over by that time. I mean, the first page was enough to... Okay. Yeah. Well, I'm writing this because it involves aspects of practice that I think it's helpful to clarify.

[06:06]

If we're going to think about how this practice can be shared with others and how it makes sense. Yeah, okay. But for any of you, when you read it, if you only read it partially though, if you read it, does something come up where you say, hey, this pertains to my practice, or do you feel it doesn't? So I'm asking. We talked about this in the group of doctors this morning.

[07:23]

I think the question of how we speak, from what we speak, together, or in the profession, or at home, or anywhere, For me, this has made it a little clearer now. When I practice to be more embodied and to find my identity in the different experiences and in the breath. So for me, the way we discussed this morning in the doorstep group is to look at what is the space or what am I speaking from? And how I can find...

[08:26]

in a history of I and in a differentiation of opposites or If I no longer find my continuity in the I-referential or in referencing to the self or in the distinguishing categories that are bringing about oppositions, Im Moment fühle ich mich so, dass ich irgendwo bin, wo ich diese Verkörperungserfahrung und dieses Raum verbindet. And at present I'm at a point where I feel that I have more of a realization of the connectivity of space.

[09:49]

And yet, when it comes to communicating with and through language, I feel like a beginner. And it's become clearer to me that if we do this practice in a way that it can become transformative or is transformative. It's also important to look at how do we speak with people who are thoroughly anchored in Western culture. without regressing and just continuing the way that we used to, yeah.

[11:19]

Also, I think, for example, that there is also a Zen Buddhist in politics who gives a different vote in a council than a Westerner who has not practiced it. And so I would say that Zen Buddhists and politics would vote or would make use of their voice maybe differently than, let's say, a Western person who hasn't practiced. And you, Roshi, have been telling us for decades that you speak to us and with your language... And you, Roshi, have shown us for all this time now how you've been able to bring up experienceables and distinguish them through your language.

[12:20]

And these are shared experiences, otherwise we couldn't absorb them. Okay. And I don't know exactly what the question is, but somewhere in what I'm trying to say, something is becoming clear about what culture is. Any other observations? Anyone else have observations? For me, while going through a text like this, a lot of layers came up. One for juxtaposing dualistic and non-dualistically conceived culture.

[14:06]

Then also in a different context, which you said there's a purely biological aspect. And then I wonder through the experience, the way it's formed through culture in me, how do I perceive boundaries? And then, was sind das für Grenzen? then what kind of boundaries are? How does that work? And so one thing you said from your teaching that stuck with me is that realization doesn't happen within this cultural frame.

[15:33]

And then I looked at, well, how do I feel boundaries? And I have to first of all feel them in their various facets in order to even begin to be able to look behind them. Your daughter suddenly says, yes, maybe that too. Suddenly the Quran says, show me your face before your parents. And then this koan appeared in which it says, show me your face before your parents were born. So that's the kind of dynamic that happened through this. Okay, thank you. For me what's interesting is especially what kind of cultural views are a hindrance in practice.

[16:45]

Such a non-dualistic conceived, inclusive, experiential spectrum is almost not possible in the West. And I just received this text, but the first sentence that stuck out to me is the sentence I just quoted, such non-dualistic, conceived, inclusive, experiential spectrum, almost not possible in the West. Also, that this kind of experience, this non-dualistic experience, is almost impossible in the West. For me, this is a point that, for me, which is very important or exciting and which is also a bit related to this city group question is how can I still practice something like that for myself?

[18:06]

And that's a point that's very important to me, and that also reaches into the questions I have about the city group topic. And I wonder, how can I nonetheless practice these views or practices within the city context? So one of the things I notice is that when I'm here, there is this basic, this fundamental acceptance for the practice that we do and that we're here for. And of course there's some kind of attitude that plays into this, but that covers many territories of life. And for me personally, and at least that's how I see it, this is an attitude that is not present in a culture that is only based on materialism.

[19:32]

This culture has no interest in this attitude. And in my perception, what happens is that a culture that's fundamentally interested in materialism has no interest in these views or in these attitudes. So the question is, how can I build such a framework in our city? How can you practice together or how can you keep it for yourself so that you can also practice within these views? And so then the task that I am looking at is then how can I, in the context of a city, how can I either for myself or individually or with a group create a frame that allows me to live in the context of the views that support practice?

[20:36]

Yeah. Anyone else want to say something? Yes. I hope it doesn't sound disrespectful, but it's not my favourite text. Speak a bit louder, please. I don't want to be disrespectful, but I wanted to say it's not my favourite text because I don't understand it so well. We talked about it. It's in English, on the one hand, So I hope I'm not being respectless, but this is not my favorite text. I'm having a very hard time to understand it. One reason is the length of the sentences. But the other is of course just the English itself.

[21:42]

So for me it helped a lot when Nicole translated the text in the first session. Did you translate the whole text or just part of it? As far as we got, yeah. He is very intellectual, I think. Sometimes he is very abstract. And I always notice that it becomes exciting for me when you talk about yourself. When you say, Sven, it's a craft of embodiment. When you put your experience into it, then I am immediately... So for me, parts of it are abstract, but where I immediately feel a resonance is when you say something like Zen is a craft of embodiment, so anything where I can feel the experience in it, then I immediately resonate.

[22:44]

I'd like to say something. Mm-hmm. Can I? It's so hard to translate when I'm trying to think by myself. I'll just speak now. I would like to take a sentence out of the text. I could use different sentences, but I'll take this one. The sentence where he speaks about changing worlds into domains of experience. I'd like to just look at one of the sentences in the text. So I'd like to just pick one of the sentences. For me it could be several sentences, but I'm just going to pick this one as an example. Okay. which is the sentence starts with tennis, golf and so forth, but basically you're reframing the word worlds into experiential domains.

[24:00]

And I just look at the sentence and see what language can do at all. And I just looked at the sentence and see what language can do at all. And I just looked at the sentence and see what language can do at all. So for me in this reframing of the word world, there's a whole experiential shift in that that I'd like to look at. Nämlich, dass wie ich gestern schon mal gesagt habe, Normally, I think, without saying it in my thoughts, but I usually assume that we are all sitting here in one world.

[25:02]

And in this one world there is now Friederike and Erlen and so on. And I assume that all this and the things of the world normally without formulating the view I assume that we are all sitting here in one world and that in this one world there are different things there's Friederike there's Alan there's a Buddha there there's a wall there's a room and so forth so as if there's one world and the world is put together it's like the sum of all the different things So for me, what you do when you're saying tennis is a world, golf is a world, well, then what that means is that also Alan is a world.

[26:14]

Sitting here together for this moment and for what we're creating is a world. Okay. So what I find interesting is that language here reaches into something that I didn't consciously think, but that was nonetheless present in my thinking. So, something comes up that I didn't consciously think of, but that was still present in my thinking. And when it comes up and suddenly changes, and I think that's a way of looking at where I'm actually standing in practice, is the question of how quickly or how urgently a conceptual shift is being translated So I think one way also to look at where am I at in practice

[27:20]

Yeah, just to look at my own practices, to look at how fully, how completely can a conceptual shift bring about an experiential shift that reflects in my feeling right now, that reflects in, that fully becomes an experiential shift. At that point, when a first of all, more like abstract that can be considered an abstract shift, like the shift from everything is in one world into each thing is its own world, When that brings about a different feeling in resonance with Alan, for instance, or a different feeling in being here, then something at first abstract is turning into something very specific and very real.

[28:38]

Yeah. Okay. It sounds like you're making use of it. I find it brilliant. I mean, I'm thrilled. Yeah, but I, yeah, maybe enough. Alan? It's not your sense, but you quoted it, and I find that always very impressive. The entire earth is the true human body, and I think then, well, actually, what I am is just a specific perspective of a whole thing. I'm not... But what happens is there's this... construct of ego which separates itself from the whole and sort of takes center stage and says, well, this is the show, this is the only game, really game in town for me, you know.

[30:13]

And there's that confusion. And I find in practice that I that I can sort of ignore ego. I mean, I'm not... When I'm sitting on the cushion, I'm not in direct interaction with the rest of the cultural world. And so whatever ego... is interested in plaguing me with, I can sort of ignore it. Okay.

[31:31]

You know, one of the things that's brought up here is what the idea of embodiment brings up the idea of non-duality. So one of the things that are present here is the idea of embodiment also brings up the idea of non-duality. And non-duality as a term or a kind of idea floats around in all kinds of Buddhist texts. And I suppose most of us just read the word and skip over it.

[32:33]

But obviously there is difference in the world. Things are not all the same. The world is a panoply of differences. Penelope, I don't know. Just a lot. Okay. And at the same time, things are not all the same. The world is a multitude of differences. So the question is, do we as a practicing group read it carefully enough that we say, I won't read any further till I know the difference between non-duality or not, or why I use the term, or what the heck they're referring to? And a question here is whether we as a Buddhist group read such a text thoroughly enough to see if we can really stand by each of these words, by such a word, and to say, I will only read further when it is clear to me why the word non-dual is used here and what exactly it aims for.

[33:46]

And it may be, and it's very often the case that in commentaries and things they use the word non-duality because they don't really know themselves what they're, they're translating something. For example, Again, Dogen says that Hishiryo is maybe the most important word in Zen practice. And it's translated by everyone as non-thinking. That's about... No better than non-duality.

[34:55]

So what can you do with non-thinking? Just look at yourself and practice. What can you do with non-thinking? Well, you can notice sometimes you think less and sometimes you think more and you can begin to... codify the states of mind in which there's more thinking, in which there's less thinking, and then you can begin to develop the states of mind where there's less thinking. If you take Dogen seriously in saying this word, then you have to say, Well, thinking less, I mean, yeah, okay, but... And I can... Okay, let me start from another point.

[36:10]

The four tenets, as I call it, of all Buddhism... Now, some of you here are guests. You were just here and you're joining our discussion. And some of you like meditation. That's great. I do too. Okay. And some of you have been practicing 10, 20, 30 years. I've been coming to Germany about 30 years. Okay. Okay. So the first tenet is realization or transformation is possible. Or enlightenment is possible.

[37:17]

And what I'm saying in your practice is your practice is not going to reach any depth if you don't actually believe that. Now, if you're doing this really seriously, you have to say, what does it mean to me to say, am I waiting for enlightenment? I mean, you have to deal with the idea that transformation is possible. Und wenn ihr wirklich ernsthaft praktiziert, dann müsst ihr mit dieser Vorstellung umgehen. Ihr müsst euch das fragen, was bedeutet das für mich? Und ihr müsst euch irgendwie auseinandersetzen mit dieser Grundvorstellung, dass Erleuchtung möglich ist.

[38:23]

And you have to deal with what you'd like to transform. I just had a little experience driving here yesterday, I guess. The day before. I was behind some woman driving a car with a bunch of people in it. She went slow and she ought to go faster. She went fast when it was unnecessary. And she had a line of five or six cars behind her. So finally at that waterfall there, parking area, she just suddenly slowed down as if she's going to let the line go by. Okay, this is a really stupid example.

[39:24]

So, I watched what she did. She didn't do anything. She didn't turn. And so I thought, okay, I'll go around her. So I went around her, but just as I went around her, she decided to go into the parking lot. So I went along and she started driving right toward me. It would be good if you stopped. But I went around her, she did stop, etc. Then I found myself making excuses for myself. If she'd run into me, she would have been completely right.

[40:34]

I was wrong. I should have waited longer to see what she was going to do. So while I was continuing driving, I found myself making excuses. She really shouldn't have, and I wouldn't have, you know. I years ago practiced training myself not to lie to myself. You know Nobody's listening but me, but I'm saying, well, really, it was, you know... I don't accept in myself that I do that.

[41:42]

I have really cut that out of myself, and here it appeared again. I thought, oh, jeez, my practice is terrible. I guess it was 45 minutes of being behind her and being kind of annoyed. But I was ashamed of myself. If I have to lie to myself when no one else is listening, it's crazy. All right. So a little transformation would be good in my case. Okay. And the second tenet.

[42:52]

It's possible to be free of mental and emotional suffering. If you're not free of mental and emotional suffering, your practice isn't working. So, it works. When that's the case, you would start wondering, how can I practice so? Basically, there's no reason not to feel happy every moment, or reasonably happy. I mean, it doesn't mean you don't feel grief and things, but just because you can handle whatever emotions occur, you can feel them with more depth. And if you go that far, then you can say to yourself, basically, there is no reason at all not to be happy in every single moment, in every moment.

[43:53]

Or basically to be happy. Of course, you still mourn when something happens and so on. Okay, so the third is it is possible to practice and live in a way that is beneficial to all being and things. Und der dritte Lehrsatz ist, dass es möglich ist, auf eine Art und Weise zu leben und zu praktizieren, die für alles, für alle Dinge, allem zu Wohle kommt. Okay. And fourth is it's possible to live as close as possible to how things actually exist. Und das vierte ist, dass es möglich ist, so nah wie möglich dran zu leben, wie die Dinge tatsächlich existieren.

[44:59]

Which is also expressed as non-duality. Und das wird auch verstanden als nicht-dualität. Now, what do we mean by the word non-duality? Was ist gemeint mit diesem Wort nicht-dualität? What do we mean by... Hishirio translated as non-thinking. Now the practice and the realistic and better etymological definition is to notice without thinking about. Now, maybe none of us want to practice in this kind of detail. I imagine that, you know, it's hard enough to do zazen once a day if you're living in a busy, conscious life. And maybe after a while you notice you do feel better or cleaned out or something when you do happen to sit and don't miss for a week.

[46:26]

And you do start making it your habit. But if you accomplish, and I imagine for most people, maybe not us adepts, but for most people, if they imagine 30 or 40 minutes a day and they feel a little better afterwards, that's a lot. They can't do more. But if we imagine for most of us, if we sit 30 or 40 minutes a day, then that's a lot. And you can't do more. Many can't do more than that. You know, we have this girl, Swedish girl, Greta Thunberg is her name. Yeah. Well, as she says, I don't follow the news very carefully, but enough that I've seen her briefly.

[47:32]

And she says in her little speeches, the little bit I've heard, is I have Asperger's syndrome. So she decided, Greta decided, whoever she is, Asperger's or not, the world is already in the midst of the sixth extinction. So what did she decide? She wouldn't go to school on Fridays, isn't that right? And kids all over the world now are, many of them, not going to school on Fridays. My recommendation is we all need Asperger's syndrome.

[48:40]

Soon. I mean, right now, the Amazon rainforest is burning. Why is it burning? Because farmers and loggers are setting it afire. It represents 20% of the world's oxygen. And a huge percentage of the carbon capture from the atmosphere. Now, we don't have a world government. God knows what that would be. Wir haben keine Regierung für die Welt.

[49:56]

But if there was a world government, it should go in right now and martially take over Brazil and throw the leader out. Aber wenn wir eine Regierung für die Welt hätten, dann sollte diese Regierung jetzt direkt da reinmarschieren und auch militärisch Brasilien übernehmen und die Regierenden dort rausschmeißen. No, that's not going to happen. Okay. The farmers and loggers and capitalism are going to win. Yeah. Okay. Now, my own prediction is this is a small example of much bigger problems that are going to happen in the next decades. A small example. Who's going to do something about it? So in the text, yes? We have to. Well, I don't see us doing it, but yeah, somebody has to. Why not us?

[51:16]

Okay. So in the text I've put down, there's a difference between developing an attentional attunement with each inhale, bodily experience of each inhale. I don't know if you've gone that far yet. And a bodily experience of each exhale, which is different than bringing attention to breathing. What's the difference? Breathing is not experiential. It's a generalization about breathing. Now, I say something in there that, yes, if you bring attention to breathing, it does locate you, it does make you more present in the here and now.

[52:23]

The here and now is also a generalization. Is that my Anju? A ride from Japan? Come on in. You can sit on her lap. Thanks for offering. Well, I can't offer mine. It wouldn't be appropriate. Okay. The problem with bringing attention to the breathing, although it is very powerful, has a very fruitful and powerful effect.

[53:27]

It establishes the world as a continuity. And if you establish the world as a continuity, you reinforce self. Your narrative identity functions through an imagined continuity. So, it's not so easy to develop the habit of bringing attention wholly to the physical experience of the inhale independent of the physical experience of the exhale.

[54:40]

Es ist nicht so einfach, die Aufmerksamkeit wirklich vollständig zu der körperlichen Erfahrung des Einatmens zu bringen, unabhängig von der körperlichen Erfahrung des Ausatmens. Okay, but if you get that ability, so on each step even, you feel you're like a new person. And you actually feel on each step a kind of new person appears, and then a new person appears, and then a new person appears. Again, my musician friends here, when you're playing music, you've got to play each note like it was the whole world, I assume. There's a next note, but that note has to be really there. Many years ago, I organized the Pablo Casals Masterclass.

[55:44]

I've told you that. Oh. Oh. Yeah, he's a cellist, so, you know, I'm a cellist. He's a cellist. Anyway, I organized that conference, and one thing he said to these people who had just won cello prizes in Moscow is, when you're playing the cello, he said, I hear the one note. He said that forcefully to the whole group. And I organized the Pablo Casal master class many years ago. And he said to all the cellists who were there and who won international prizes worldwide, he said very strictly or forcefully, if you play the cello here, then I hear this one tone.

[56:49]

He said... I know the people here in the front aren't really paying attention. In an audience, in a concert. And he said, and I can feel the two or three people elsewhere in the audience who are actually paying attention. And he said, and I feel the drop of sweat going down under my arm. And he said, and I hear the one note. This guy who was there, one of the students in this master class, had just come in second in Moscow, that Van Cliburn was in as a pianist many years ago, etc.

[57:59]

And he'd been second. And Casals said to him, well, you're getting that note, but your hand isn't beautiful. If your hand is beautiful, the note will be more beautiful in the way he was touching the strings. And one of the participants in his lesson was this guy who had just won the second prize in Moscow at a big international competition. And he said to this cellist, if you play this tone, then the tone is quite good, but your hand is not beautiful. And if you hold your hand differently so that it is beautiful, then the tone will be even more beautiful. Okay, so a reasonable question would be, okay, you say that it makes a difference if you have full concentration on the whole bodily experience of the exhale and then the whole bodily experience of the inhale and etc.,

[59:05]

And what you're doing is training the muscle of attention, attentional attunement, to place you in a successional world and not a world, a continuity world. Okay. Now, a reasonable question would be, okay, I hear you say that. It's somewhat convincing. I don't know. But what's the fruit of it?

[60:09]

Why should I bother? I'm quite happy just paying attention to breathing and getting 40 minutes of Zazen in now and then. So what I would like is people saying, well, I know you say those things, but I've been trying it for three months now, and I notice these results, but still, what? But, you know, I'm not getting those questions. So, you know, as I said, I've been coming to Europe for 30 years or so. And I've been coming and bringing something about practice to us.

[61:17]

And discovering and developing practice with you. But I don't want to do that anymore. I would like to be able to come to Step door Zen. And not have to say anything. And maybe we should have a rule. You're accepted to step door Zen if you are willing to lead the four days fully. Otherwise, don't come. I don't want to teach anymore. I just want to refine what I hear from you and I want to hear tons from you. Otherwise, what's the point? I've only got a few years left. I just want to refine what I hear from you and I want to hear a lot from you. So that's why I'm stopping doorsteps in.

[62:32]

Yes. In the last doorsteps in, you talked about lying awake one night and thinking about your father and regretting having not done right by him in some way. Yeah, that's true. And my question is, I would call that mental suffering, right? Isn't that suffering? Isn't that one of the things that suffering is? The experience that I kind of read. At the last Dark Steps, Roshi talked about how he couldn't sleep at night and it went through his head how he wasn't fair to his father. And my question is, isn't that mental suffering? So... Yeah, well, okay. It makes me feel a little uncomfortable. But I think that's the kind of person I am. I have no regrets. But then is the tenet only partially true, or is it... Well, I'm not suffering from it.

[63:39]

I'm recognizing that I did that. Okay. That's all. Okay. I go right back to sleep. I mean, it doesn't mean you don't feel things, but because I don't suffer from feeling regrets, I can feel how terrible it was how I treated him. And I can examine it and say, okay, that's the kind of person I am. Not so great. It's like the experience in the car as well with the woman that you just had a couple of days ago. That's not the one person you would like to be and like to think of yourself of. But I do notice the whole time when I was behind her, because I could have passed her other times, I thought, well, she's distracted and she's with her family and she's, you know, this kind of person. So she should be that kind of person.

[64:40]

That's all right. So I was very... quite slow, because I was respecting, that's the kind of person she is. And you know, you pass someone sometimes, you think, geez, why are they going so slow? And you go, and they're about 70 or 80 years old, and they can barely see over the steering wheel, and you think, I'm going to go back behind them. Can I go into the situation again? I like it, I am challenged by it. I think it's nice to ask such questions. I would also like to ask something in this situation. I do think that... I would wonder if it would be different now, because it's a situation where you regret something, an action that you have done, and then inevitably a bad feeling arises.

[65:45]

I feel challenged or I think it's good to be challenged in the way that you've just challenged us. But I'd like to go back to this situation that you talked about. That's fairly normal. You regret something that you've done or don't feel good about something you've done. And then I think it's important to accept that no matter how much I practice, I will always have feelings like that. I will always have some form of negative feelings. The difference can only be that what I create as an extra out of it and reproduce it again and again, I can turn it off.

[66:56]

But the fruit of practice can maybe only be that what I produce as an extra to that, or as an addition to that, and then the next extra, in addition to the former extra and so forth, that I cut that off. And maybe that I can keep the feeling that it's present. And maybe... That I don't have to avoid it. And maybe that in the feeling that arises that I can be present in it so I don't have to avoid it. Because I think that when we lay out the concepts like this, then sometimes they seem so seductive or so convincing or something as if the negativity or the difficulty wasn't there anymore. Well, a little seduction is good sometimes.

[68:09]

But you're right that the better attitude is there will always be these kind of problems. But the simple distinction that Ruth Benedict, I guess it was, made years ago between a shame culture and a guilt culture In Asian studies, it's kind of cliche, but it's rather true. In a shame culture, you notice you've done such and such a thing. And you make a decision, I will not ever do that again. And you know you're capable of not ever doing it again. And then it's gone.

[69:12]

There's no guilt. So that's why it's important to be honest with yourself about what you've done and how you did it and why you did it. so that you can examine it thoroughly enough, like a lawyer. He's a lawyer, almost a lawyer, already a lawyer. And you're capable of really feeling, I can see what happened, I will see the little things that led to it, and I won't do it. Okay, so let's have a break. And...

[70:03]

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