So if you want to practice, if you decided to take on, well, maybe I could take on this bodhisattva practice. Again, this has this path quality. First is to establish yourself in quietude. Even if you're speaking, whatever, still there's a feeling of quietude. You have assumptions, but you can suspend assumptions. You can find yourself free, like in the second foundation of mindfulness, free from grasping or rejecting. And even free from any attitude at all. Okay, so this is now

[01:07]

Please understand that this is not about perfect state of quietude or imperfect state of distraction. We're human beings, so there's always a remnant. A remnant is like a piece of cloth left over after you die. So the Buddha, an alive person who realizes nirvana, always realizes nirvana with a remnant. Otherwise you're dead. So, and a remnant is what you make Buddha's robe from. So, in these teachings there's a directionality, not a pure state of either.

[02:12]

There's a directionality toward freedom from assumptions. You can feel when you're more distracted or less distracted. You're more attached, less attached. So the Bodhisattva has a direction toward freedom from assumptions, grasping perceptions, and so forth. And in that process the mind becomes bright and shiny. When you don't go out toward objects which darkens the mind. But you let objects come into you. It makes the mind shine.

[03:32]

It makes objects shine. And in English, it's interesting, very many of the early words are rooted in versions of to shine or to glow or Und im Englischen ist es interessant, dass ziemlich viele Worte in diesem zurückzuführen sind, auf die Wurzel zu scheinen, zu klimmern. So if I feel this room coming into me and arising from my own space like this ryokopon, the room shines with the quality of mind itself. This kind of feeling, this kind of directionality is the practice of a bodhisattva. And that's what we've been talking about in the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. We could say one of the main points of the four foundations is to know things from inside.

[04:45]

And to know things from inside means you actually cease having inside-outside connections. feelings, perceptions. It all feels one transparency, one flow. Es fühlt sich an wie ein einziger Fluss, wie eine einzige durchscheinende Einheit. And this feeling free of inside-outside distinction, I mean, practically speaking, I don't pour the water over my shoulder, I pour it in my mouth. But it's wet both ways. I don't know. So when you have a strong sense of inside-outside distinction, I'm here and you're over there and maybe what do you think about me and all that stuff.

[05:50]

It's the root of dualistic thinking. And when you dissolve that kind of dualism, it tends to dissolve other dualisms. Okay. So that's, you know, bodhisattva. Where a bodhisattva lives, how a bodhisattva experiences our society and so forth. Okay, and a bodhisattva is also one who is able to... has the capacity to imagine each person as a Buddha. That's a good practice. Can you imagine other people as a Buddha? And you can play with it a little bit. Like notice how you feel about a baby. It's different than you feel about adults.

[07:15]

So can you have that same feeling for an adult? What's necessary to feel that way? Or as I said, Marie-Louise and I got lost in the forest around Johanneshof. When Americans come to the Black Forest, they say, the Black Forest is nothing but villages and farms. And trees suffering from French pollution. But even in our little village, you go out in the forest, you're out in the forest, I'll tell you. There's canyons.

[08:31]

We got completely lost. At some point, the little signs that tell you which direct, where, what next villages disappear. And it was sunny out there, you know. But it was actually raining and hailing inside the forest. And we had short-sleeved shirts on. So this was only for two and a half hours. It wasn't too serious. But we were quite cold and wet. And we would have welcomed any person who showed up. Oh, a human being.

[09:34]

We wouldn't have thought, I don't like that guy. Let's not ask him a question. So how can you relate to each person you meet as if you just saw them when you were lost in the forest. So you can play a little bit. Why do you meet a person and have all this baggage right away? Maybe some of the baggage is necessary. Particularly if it's full of gifts. But you should still be able to put the baggage down. So the Bodhisattva can put the baggage down. Feel What does it mean to be a Buddha or be a bodhisattva?

[10:41]

Can you feel in the person this... body-mind that arises from the first foundation of mindfulness. So this goes back to this sense of being able to simultaneously see, know. Does that basically see and know? To feel all the patterns the person has and to feel in them also the mind that's free of patterns. But you can't do that till you feel the mind in yourself that's free of patterns. Yeah. So this is something one can work on.

[11:56]

Can I really conceive of myself as a Buddha or maybe make it easier a Bodhisattva or can I be in the direction of a Bodhisattva or can I see in each person in front of me that part that yearns to be in the direction of a Bodhisattva I remember some years ago a friend of mine, we were many, many years ago in fact, we'd both been in the merchant ring together. We went to visit my parents, Mrs. 19. Sixty years, fifty-nine or something.

[13:03]

Fifty-seven, sorry. There was this little kid that lived next to my parents. And he was a nuisance, this little kid. He was always knocking. What? knocking things down. And he was throwing stones at us. You know, here I am with my friend. We're taking a walk along the road down to the bay. And here's this five-year-old kid picking up little stones and throwing them at us. So we walked a little bit, and this kid was behind us throwing stones.

[14:07]

And Earl and I were walking, and Earl just turned around and got down like this and put out his arms. That's what... And the little kid stood there with a stone in hand and didn't know what to do. And suddenly he ran the ten meters or so into Earl's arms and started crying. So Earl somehow felt right away this other quality in this little boy. How do you know? How do you know what to do? There's no rules for something like that. Since we're talking about Earl, I'll tell one other little story.

[15:13]

Once we were in some place, South Africa or Iran or someplace. And some little kid said to Earl, what are you? And Earl said, I'm a poet. And... The kid said, make me a poem. So the little kid was eating a plum at that time. Earl took the plum and said, hello, little seed inside of a prune. How are things in there? What's doing? How is that? That was quite clever. A little seed inside of a prune.

[16:14]

How are things in there? What's doing? The kid was, oh. So that's a poet. Okay. So there's this sense of being able to recognize the essence of mind in a person. And the way they too also yearn for the direction, in the direction of a bodhisattva. Maybe this is partly to take the ploughman's ox away. To recognize the person doesn't only want to be a ploughman, a farmer.

[17:19]

Okay. Now, how do you perfect this? How do you perfect it in yourself and perfect it in others? Well, first you perfect it in yourself. And that's the practice of the six paramitas. And now we're looking at the paramitas as a practice, not as a... A teaching that's a practice, not just a teaching about how to be a good person. So the first is generosity. And you just... you actually try to practice generosity.

[18:34]

To feel less boundaries. Yeah, and you know, one way I do it, and it's interesting for me, I sort of look for ways in which I can give people money. For instance, at the Vienna airport the other day, there was this rather large black woman unable to get Her cart, she doesn't know how in Germany and Europe carts operate with a coin, you know, you have to put it in, like in the grocery store. The Vienna airport, you need five shillings or ten shillings or something. So I... Five shillings is not very much money, so I gave her five shillings and showed her how to work it.

[19:47]

But it's interesting, when you do that, people have a hard time accepting money, even in such a circumstance. I mean, if I did this once a week, it would cost me more than a few dollars a year. Or I see somebody, it's easier to do in Europe than in America. Because you walk by somebody and they're trying to figure out how to use the phone, they don't have the coins, so you... Give him a coin. They say, what can I send it back, you know? Yeah, so you find little ways that are, you know, that go across that little boundary where you don't cross usually. You help people with their luggage at the airport.

[20:55]

You carry things with them. Yeah. So whatever it is, you just find little ways to be... generous in expected ways and unexpected ways. You really want to get the feeling that what That what I have is shareable. So you try to actually practice acts of generosity. Sometimes it's hard when you're driving and you're in a hurry. But it's more about the...

[21:55]

attitude of generosity. An open feeling. An open feeling in relationship to the world. An unprotected feeling. Keep taking any walls you make down. You don't... feel you want to keep the world and people at a distance. Which means, practically speaking, you have to somehow be able to be sealed. You can't lose all your energy and because everybody's invading your space. Okay, that's the first attitude of of the paramitas.

[23:23]

The second is discipline. Sometimes taken to be the precepts. But really it means But it really means receiving. Because discipline is how you receive. It takes discipline to learn something. So the root of discipline is actually to know how to receive. In English. You want to receive. If you want to learn to play the piano, you have to have some discipline. I've come to a new appreciation of school children's desks. You know, I grew up with a society that society is wrong, institutions are wrong, schools are wrong, etc.

[24:43]

You should let kids do what they want. But training a kid to sit at a desk all day long is probably better than not. It's a kind of meditation. I think they've done studies that show kids who are distracted all the time actually have a pretty bad future. A kid who learns to hold back and make decisions about when to do things actually does better in the world. So in any case, some kind of discipline is... So the first parameter is you don't feel boundaries, you're just open.

[25:51]

And the second parameter is you're open to the other person. You're not just ready to give, you're also ready to receive. So you don't want a person who just gives all the time. You want to be a person who can receive. And allow another person in your territory. Now here I'm trying to speak about this as like a dharma unit, as a unit or a practice you can bring to each situation. So you have a feeling of giving? of being there to receive.

[27:02]

So what's the third parameter? Patience. Patience means to wait for the ripening moment. And not with the feeling like you're waiting outside the situation. But the feeling you're waiting inside with the other person. You feel, I've got all the time in the world. You can just stand there In a sense in quietude. With a readiness to give. A readiness to receive. Free of accepting and rejecting. Free of assumptions. And so forth. You have this kind of place.

[28:15]

Okay, so what's the next parameter? It's really very simple. Energy. It requires energy to be there, patient, with another person, open and receiving. So I've coined a new word, aware energy. Energy isn't quite right. Awareness, it's aware energy, and it spells nicely, A-W-A-R-E-N-E-G. We'll get it in the dictionary. Aware energy. So the fourth paramita is aware energy.

[29:22]

Awareness and energy. And what does it practically mean, this idea of energy and... In Buddhism. Energy or effort. It means you have a feeling of readiness. And that feeling of readiness is also connected with knowing that everything's changing. There's always... There's always a kind of danger in every situation. So you have these four, the first four parameters. Generosity. Being able to receive. Yeah. Being patient and waiting for the ripening time, the right moment.

[30:32]

Waiting not outside the situation, but waiting inside the situation. And the energy to be present. So those first four paramitas you can practice every time you're with another person. It's kind of a deep practical wisdom. What are you going to bring another person? This is why I said the Bodhisattva reconstructs him or herself. To have such a practice And feeling of this present in each time you're with another person is a kind of reconstruction process.

[31:36]

My guess is, since you all just had a break, 45 minutes ago, And you drank coffee and all kinds of things. Maybe we should have a five or ten minute break, because we're going to go to at least one, right? So let's have a ten minute break. Okay, we should continue.

[32:49]

We're planning to stop at one o'clock, right? Plus three or four people have to leave at one o'clock. Okay, the Bodhisattva has the thought of enlightenment. To be able to imagine oneself or another person as a Buddha or Bodhisattva is the expression of the thought of enlightenment. We can understand enlightenment in this context to mean to be the shift from being through consciousness to the shift to being through essence of mind. Now, Zen is a mixture of the pedagogy of sudden enlightenment and the pedagogy of original enlightenment.

[34:22]

Now, They're somewhat contradictory ideas, but they work very well together. If you just have sudden enlightenment, you tend to wait for that sudden enlightenment to happen. But when I say, don't set up before or after, or here and there, those kind of statements are based on the pedagogy of suddenly. And so there's no sense of waiting either.

[35:25]

But original enlightenment The idea is that you're already enlightened. Or the potential for enlightenment is a part of you. And to various degrees, you already have this experience. And in fact, the way you exist is based on enlightenment. You may identify with the mind of accumulated consciousness. But even the mind of accumulated consciousness is not possible without essence of mind, fundamental mind. So you may think you and all of your actions may be based on accumulated consciousness.

[36:41]

But the fact that accumulated consciousness is based on fundamental or true mind. And the practice of the four foundations of mindfulness is a practice which can give you a taste and experience of this fundamental mind. But the challenge of bodhisattva practice is how can you function through this mind in ordinary circumstances? What are the most challenging of ordinary circumstances?

[37:48]

Entering the medium of being with others. Entering the habits of being with others. Now, so from that point of view, the practice of the parameters, is the opportunity to test and mature the thought of enlightenment. To enact enlightenment. For what would we expect of a Buddha? Or a Bodhisattva. At least that they're open, generous, receptive, and so forth. So this Zen way of understanding the parameters is based on original enlightenment.

[39:02]

Yeah, it makes sense as a practice. of sudden enlightenment, but it makes much more sense as a practice based on original enlightenment. And the commitment of the bodhisattva to to refrain from nirvana, as long as they're suffering beings. And the deeper perception, you cannot be fully blissfully happy while other people are suffering. So the Bodhisattva always feels deeply sad. And simultaneously feels deeply joyful.

[40:14]

Because there's both joy in the world and there's sadness in the world. There's no way to avoid that. So there's this kind of ache and pain always in your body. And there's also this simple joy and the beauty of everything. These are not contradictory. They're just what it is to be a human being. So knowing that you that your enlightenment, joy and sorrow is connected to others, then this realization of the paramitas is inseparable from realizing it with others.

[41:27]

So how do you interact with others from the feeling of original enlightenment? You take on the practice. You take on the bodhisattva vow. which is to accomplish the parameters in every interaction with another person. And you're not discouraged that you only have 1% success. Because if you take it on as a vow, say you take it on as a vow now, today, this year, don't be scared, oh, I can't do this, I better not, I'll wait till I'm better. There's no waiting.

[42:36]

Remember, there's a song I sing. It's now or never. Okay. So you say you make the decision now. And you... Decision and a vow. Yes, why not live this way? One year from now, maybe you're 2% successful. And really, three or four years, you find you're actually doing it most of the time with people. And you notice when you don't do it. Or can't do it, or just don't have the energy. So then your practice is to really find the aware energy, the energy. Okay. Now, another practice that works well with the paramitas is the four Ramaviharas, or the four Unlimiteds, which means to practice unlimited practice.

[43:59]

Das bedeutet, unbegrenzte Freundlichkeit zu üben. Unbegrenzte emphatische Freude zu praktizieren. Unbegrenztes Mitgefühl zu praktizieren. Und unbegrenzte Gleichmut zu üben. So what does this mean? Again, it's a kind of, it's not morality or something, it's a kind of challenge. Wouldn't it be nice if people were that way? Or tried to be that way? So in this, the paramitas are something that's interactive with each person. The Brahma viharas means you just try to radiate friendliness. You don't care if anybody's there to receive it. Imagine being a lighthouse or something. Maybe in front of a drugstore.

[45:31]

It doesn't have to be a rocky shore. Anyway... So you feel, you see, is it possible for me to just feel friendly? Is it possible for me to feel empathetic joy? Often we get, even when a friend has success, we get a little bit, oh, oh. I could have had that success. That's not empathetic, Julie. So you try to see if you can feel joy in other people's successes.

[46:34]

That's one way to start. You read the newspaper. Don't pay so much attention to everybody's suffering, but take joy in the small successes people have. See somebody, an old person struggling along the street, you can take joy that they're able to walk and carry their cane and so forth. If you practice empathetic joy, you find you start smiling at the world a lot. And then compassion and equanimity.

[47:37]

So this, again, is part of the Bodhisattva practice. Okay, so what are the... We've done four of the paramitas. What are the last two? Meditation and wisdom. And this makes it a kind of circle. You can't really practice... The four parameters, unless you have some meditation experience. And unless you're capable of wisdom decisions, not just Birth decision. You're able to decide, yes, I should live like a bodhisattva. That's a wisdom decision. And to not worry how successful you are, just to intend it. That's wisdom.

[48:54]

So whenever you practice the four parameters, not only do the four parameters arise from meditation and wisdom, if you can practice the four parameters, deepen your practice of meditation and wisdom. And your meditation and wisdom begins to include others, the world, your society, and so forth. So the practice of the four paramitas somehow works to make your practice of meditation and wisdom something that covers everything. that covers everything.

[50:07]

We have this sense of save all sentient beings. In a salvational sense that you're going to help. I don't like that. Literally, the vow is more to be in accord with beings in their potential for enlightenment, in their potential for Buddhahood. But there's no way to say that in English. doesn't sound like a long intellectual sentence. But if that really is the deeper intent of the Bodhisattva, because we know we're inseparable from everything and everyone, in subtle ways and explicit ways, that whether we like it or not, we are practicing within the larger body.

[51:36]

And we test that by practicing the four parameters. And the practice of the four parameters makes that more true of our meditation and wisdom. So you have this interesting dynamic between the four parameters which you practice in each situation and the meditation and wisdom Which are both the fuel for and the fruit of the practice of the first four. Isn't this a wonderful practice? What could be better? What? Let's start right now.

[52:49]

Yes. You first. You stay up. Thank you. Yeah. So I think that's sufficient enough presentation of the parameters for today, for our seminar. So why don't we sit for a little bit? And then those who have to leave can feel they're leaving without leaving. Oh, my God.

[60:08]

All right. Thank you. The End

[61:53]

Thank you for giving me an opportunity to be together with you again this year. And I fully look forward to next year. I flip off the tongue as I tumble. Yeah, that's what Paul was hoping. We'd continue tomorrow. Three days, he told me. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. First time I can be in a seminar and I can experience both what I practice at Johanneshof.

[63:17]

The first thing is to be not in the construct, to cut onions and to peel potatoes and to be in the kitchen and to take care for the guests. That's what I mean when I say to be more in this mental construct, not even to be in the bodily construct, but just to work and to... And the other thing is to receive the teaching from Bhikkharoshi, which again and again brings me into the feeling that I am a human being who is constructing, and I can look into these constructs. And I have here the feeling that I can have both feelings, one to be with you and feel with you, that you have the same experience, and on the other side to experience this construct everybody does and reconstructs and constantly reconstructs.

[64:32]

And I think the most important thing, one of the important things is to realize that these constructs really exist and that they are mental and bodily constructs also on other levels of the mind, the constructs exist. And what I take from this seminar is to again and again look at these constructs. We're going to end up to be Zen contractors. So thank you very much that I could be here. Thank you for letting Gerald and Gisela and Paul join us. Guni Sattva.

[65:39]

Guni Sattva, this is your new name. Guni Sattva. I also want to thank two persons who are not here to let you go. Oh, really? Two women. Two women? One and small. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And this is the kind of upper Austria of Yuki. Inside is for Manguiza and the outside is for Sophia. For Sophia. You mean she has to drink this? That's the outside. Do I get any? This one is in there.

[66:42]

I think you will... So this is a blanket for the baby? Something like that. It's for bathing. Bathing, yeah. I mean a towel. Thank you very much. Marie-Louise will be very pleased. Really thank you. And she's sorry she couldn't be here and she will do everything possible to come next year. And Sophia. And Sophia, yeah. We have a hard time being separated from this. Maybe when she's three or four it might be easier, but right now it's... And those who are leaving right now, safe journeys. And Elizabeth?

[67:52]

Elizabeth, you'll stay in touch with me? Just put your name on the outside.

[68:00]

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