No, we're here for... You look different today, Nicole. I mean, Louise. Louise is one of my favorite translators. Among other things. We're here for a variety of reasons, the way the world is. But we're also here to look at these extraordinary words, compassion, wisdom, generosity. wisdom, and these words that point at our situations, that point at our attitudes, and also by speaking about compassion in a

[01:08]

Buddhist context. I mean, Buddhist compassion assumes that we humans are much of the time spontaneously compassionate. But compassion as a Buddhist teaching is about how the practice of compassion opens up your own practice. And opens up your own practice in a way that allows you to help others. To allow others to practice.

[02:39]

To allow yourself to help others. I remember in the early days of the Vietnam War and all that stuff in the 60s and 70s in the United States. Sukhiroshi was always, I mean, it struck me, I was somewhat surprised, because he was always like, yes, help others, but you really have to help yourself before you help others. If you help others, without being able to help yourself, you usually make a mess of helping.

[03:42]

Is this your seat? It's got a name on it. I thought it was... Lunch is all ready? Do you want raw lasagna and cooked tomatoes? That's ready. Trungpa Rinpoche defines generosity as fearless compassion. So we have again these words, generosity, friendliness and so forth.

[05:04]

And how do they affect our own situations, our own attitudes? Now these exercises I've given you. And I see them as exercises. And you take them on like, you know, like you have to practice the piano or something like that. You don't do them only when you're feeling compassionate. In fact, meditation itself is a kind of, what could we call it, a bodily, metabolic, cerebral tune-up.

[06:09]

Meditation itself is something like a metabolic, cerebral tuning. You bring your car into the shop for tune-up. Is tune-up when you make your car fancy or when you fix it up? You make the engine and everything work better together. No, we're not trying to make ourselves fancy during the show. I'm gay. Okay, so it's a kind of metabolic cerebral tune-up. And if you get used to doing it, you'll notice that for a week or two you don't do it, you sort of get out of tune. It's a kind of wisdom about yourself or compassion to yourself to do zazen every, you know, fairly regularly.

[07:32]

Maybe it's a kind of inner jogging. No, that doesn't make sense. But people go jogging to tune themselves up. In a somewhat similar way, when you can, once a day or something like that, you kind of in your mind run through the exercises of the four immeasurables, or four Brahma-viharas. In Brahmavihara means divine states. So you practice unlimited friendliness. Even for a moment you're just having your morning cup of coffee or something and you imagine radiating friendliness in all directions.

[08:47]

And as I've often said, these teachings work also in, they work through repetition, but they also work through homeopathic doses. Because anything you do for a moment particularly if it has authenticity goes into the flow of aliveness. dann gelangt es in diesen Fluss des Lebendigseins, der meistens nicht sichtbar ist, so wie auch Flüsse oftmals zum Großteil unterhalb des Flussbettes fließen.

[09:56]

And this flow keeps, you put something in it and then it keeps surfacing in your life. So you do this exercise with the feeling of radiating unlimited friendliness. Picking some problematic and saying, okay, empathetic joy in this situation. picking something? Some problematic. And then you see if you can discover some inner stillness or stability of mind that we can call equanimity. Meaning? And you can do that also by reminding yourself, reconnecting with the simultaneous presence and continuum of mind.

[11:13]

By reminding yourself of the simultaneous presence and continuous continuum of mind on every perception. And that equanimity then opens you up to compassion. And it's not in the kind of comparison of you to others or something like that. This is like a kind of open fearlessness in every situation. The fearlessness to do what seems most appropriate to do.

[12:16]

Now, so that's These four, so often called the four immeasurables. Because they're immeasurably radiated in all directions. And because they have an immeasurable effect on you and others and your society. Just imagine if everyone practiced this. Yeah, things might look a little better in the world. Well, you can say to yourself, it's impossible. You can't get everyone to practice this. Und da sagst du dir vielleicht, es ist unmöglich, jeden dazu zu bringen, das zu praktizieren.

[13:33]

Ja, but is that a good attitude? No, you just try. Aber ist das eine gute Einstellung? Yeah, we just try. What the heck? Probier es einfach aus. You've got nothing to lose but everything. I know that, right? Du hast nichts zu verlieren. You've got nothing to lose. Okay. Now I want to give you one other... teaching right now just briefly that is often the four immeasurables are considered to be preparation for the six parametres. And the six parametres means the six perfectings. But I'm going to only mention right now the first three. As a template for action, for acting, for encountering a situation, another person.

[14:36]

So the first three are generosity, discipline, and patience. And the second three are energy or vitality or aliveness. Zazen or meditation, concentration, and wisdom. And it's thought that the first three open you up into the kind of energy you need to really concentrate and practice wisdom. It's a kind of welcoming openness that can begin to penetrate every one of your situation.

[15:56]

So you no longer feel there's obstacles to your practice. In every situation you feel a kind of warmth, that it even exists. You feel a kind of warmth that the situation itself exists. And in every situation you feel a kind of spaciousness, a kind of ego-free spaciousness. So these practices are for you yourself transformative. And that's how it's also compassionate for everyone you have some relationship to.

[17:22]

So the template is, the first is generosity. It means you create a mental posture of generosity. Das heißt also, du schaffst eine mentale Haltung der Großzügigkeit. It doesn't mean you're generous necessarily. Das bedeutet nicht unbedingt, dass ihr großzügig seid. In situations where generosity isn't needed, you still feel generous. In Situationen, wo Großzügigkeit nicht gebraucht ist, fühlt ihr euch trotzdem großzügig. I meet Jonas. If I have established this posture of generosity, my main feeling is, what does Jonas need?

[18:23]

Don't tell me. What does Jonas need? And with the feeling, I'll give Jonas anything he needs. And most of all, I'll give him, if I can, any inner calmness and freedom from mental suffering that is present for me. Now, if I feel I'm in a terrible, anxious mood, I might say, geez, I don't want to... It's contagious. I don't want to... I might say...

[19:24]

But still, the basic posture is anything he needs, I'll try to give him. And simultaneously, I'm willing to receive anything he wants to give me. So I just feel this openness to receive as well as to offer. And the second is discipline, which can be understood as the skill to be present in the situation. so that you can understand how the ability And to mean what you say.

[20:42]

And have the discipline of equanimity and unlimited friendliness and so forth. And the third is patience. And patience is just the willingness to be in the situation time free. To be in the situation in the time of the situation, not in the time of you have to do this and that. Now, if you get a feel for this template, of establishing a mental posture of generosity that offers and receives, That you have the discipline to try this out.

[21:58]

And the patience to try it out. Yeah, maybe try it out with one person once a week. And it Yeah, and see how that feels. We're talking about an attitude as well as a willingness. There's a tremendous power just in the attitude. That can open up our own lived life. Anyway, this is the teaching of Buddhism on the practice of a bodhisattva.

[23:05]

The bodhisattva who is on the spectrum of enlightenment. If you're on the spectrum, as I said the other day, of aliveness, you're on the spectrum of Buddha. Because Buddha is nothing but being as fully alive as one can be. So for us practicing Buddhism, we are all on the spectrum of Buddhism, of Buddhahood or of enlightenment. Okay, now what I'd like to do is retire. I mean leave or go upstairs. And I'd like to leave this to Otmar now and Eno Jonas to

[24:07]

Maybe we break up into two or three small groups. And discuss a little bit this stuff. Are these exercises and this template possible to actuate? Is it, are they, you know, accessible to you in your ordinary, your usual life? I hate to say your ordinary life because I'm sure none of you have ordinary lives. So, thanks.

[25:12]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_76.59