Does anyone have anything you'd like to say, reflecting on what we talked about, or something that's on your mind, or whatever? Don't all put your hands up at once. Yes, Tara. You spoke about working with the intention to bring attention to breath. And this topic, intention, that's something that's been on my mind. About half a year ago you spoke about that we have to find out how we form our intentions and how we hold them.

[01:04]

And you said something along the lines of otherwise it's always consciousness that dominates our life. And I've noticed that it doesn't work 100% and that I don't know how I can shape my intentions. And it's very essential to me. I've come to the conclusion that that's 100% true. I have too. And I found that I don't really know how to form an intention and how to hold it. That is not 100% true. But anyway, go ahead. Yes, my experience with the intention is that I have always worked with the intention that she was just there.

[02:28]

She was self-aware, then she was there and then it was easy to go with her. But it is something different when I now develop a certain intention, for example the intention to bring her to life. The way I've worked with intention in the past is that an intention will just appear. It's already there and then it's easy to follow it. But I don't know, for her, but I don't know how to form a specific intention, like for example the intention to bring attention to the breath. And maybe you can say something about intention and discipline, because I've found that that's something really essential. Okay. So I'm just absorbing what you've said.

[04:04]

But I'd like to come back to it. So, Katrin? You said this morning that starting points are important and that you want to focus on starting points. Was it the last that you wanted to talk about? And you mentioned three starting points, attention, awareness, and appearance. It's not immediately clear to me why they are starting points, or do we choose them? They start with us. Put attention on attention. Attention, awareness and experience? Is that what you said? No, attention, awareness and appearance.

[05:07]

Yeah, okay. All right, that's fine. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, almost anything can be a starting point. This pizza parlor brick arch can be a starting point. Yeah. you're bringing attention to it, or your stomach is upset, so you, you know. But, I mean, just to bring attention to something is a starting point. But I want to speak about starting points, entry points that open up into practice in a way that is on the way to enlightenment.

[06:41]

Why not? Okay, someone else? Yes? Gerald? I'd like to remark that everything you mentioned either has something to do with the body or is body. And that for me is a starting point or departure point.

[07:47]

And this reminder by you is very helpful. And if the body is the starting point for everything that you've spoken about then the question for me is how do I arrive in this Buddha? Well, everything made sense up until the last phrase. You're doing all right at arriving in the Buddha body.

[08:49]

But, yeah, that's an interesting way to put it, how to arrive in the Buddha body. instead of how to realize the Buddha body. Okay, so I'll keep that in mind too. Yes, roll with it. Oh dear. Yeah. So what's good enough for Gerald is good enough for Roland, right? All right, we have two Buddha bodies to take care of in this seminar. And if the rest of you want to roll in your Buddha body, yes.

[09:50]

I would like to hear something about the mutually resonant body that at least the Sangha here has as its foundation. Okay. Maybe I'll take that as a starting point. But if anybody else has something you want to say before I start, which will be stopping. Yes, go ahead. I have this picture of different fields, in reference to the culture in which we live, and also in reference to the Sangha, and also in reference to the sea. I have this image of different fields with regard to the culture that we live in and with regard to the Sangha and the lineage.

[11:08]

And my sense is that I am a tiny little field somewhere in there. and that I'm trying to somehow channel, direct my energies into the fields that nourish me, and to withdraw it from those that I feel they somehow harm me. And for example, I now see this field of the lineage as something very ancient and very big with everyone in it who has practiced in it.

[12:19]

That's the way it is, yeah. And that for me is also a great source of strength to remind myself of that and to tap into that. Okay. Well, what I would say is you've conceptually framed your experience in a useful way for practice. So that would be a good example of you're starting from your practice right now. But since everything is an activity and everything evolves, I would, if I were in your position, which I am also, I would keep exploring this

[13:28]

conception I've created and see how it evolves. But the conception is a good example of what Tara meant or could mean by intention. In a way we could say an intention is a mental frame. In some ways Buddhism starts with the vow and the precepts. And these are mental frames which you allow to influence your activity. And they're mental frames you feel, as you said, you feel better about

[14:47]

Some than others. Some cause you suffering and some don't. Or discomfort or something. So you choose the ones that benefit you, but also choose the ones that benefit others and understanding simultaneously. And sometimes that then chooses the what changes or transforms the ones that seem to not benefit you. Okay. So back to what Susanne brought up as a starting point. I think we can say that one of the things the Chinese brought to Buddhism The civilizational moment they brought to Buddhism is that you can create the conditions for an inducible... You can create the conditions for, or you can induce...

[16:14]

the experience of a resonant mutual body. Is that you can create the conditions or you can influence the experience of a common resonant body? Okay. Now, is my English clear enough or her German clear enough that this is clear enough that I can be clear enough to go forward? No. My wife says no. Go ahead. I'm just putting a challenge on it. Oh dear. Yeah, go ahead. I request, if it's possible, to speak about it with creating less concepts, that the process is a de-conceptualization or a reduction of concepts.

[17:50]

For me, when I listen, then it gets this more complicated and that another little detail and a new concept, and then I'm so lost in the many things I have to think about it, then it gets too complicated. So if there's a two-way approach... I think I hear a murmur of agreement. Deutsch, bitte. She's the only half of my family that speaks Deutsch. No, that's not true. One third doesn't speak. See, I can be made fun of completely. I have no idea what's going on. And she blushes even when she makes fun of me. I don't remember exactly what I said, but it was something like that.

[18:57]

What he wants to express is a request from me, also in the direction of depicting fewer concepts, because often it is the case that one concept is refined and then more concepts arise, and then I have so many concepts that I don't even know which ones I should use or implement. Okay. Yesterday, Nicole and Ulrich were speaking. And they said, your archive of tapes, recordings, audio tape, etc., is getting so large that we think you should stop talking. And of course then she suggested, having lived in America, that we should take this plumber's duct tape and put it over my mouth this morning.

[20:04]

And I remembered that my third grade teacher made the same suggestion. Okay. The problem is that my experience of why people don't develop their practice is because of the invisible conceptions working in the background. And I feel... And I feel an inner obligation to keep kind of ferreting, ferreting?

[21:19]

A ferret is like a weasel. Ferreting out, bringing out, bringing out into our attention these concepts which really block our practice. Und ich habe eine innere Verpflichtung dazu, irgendwie diese Konzeptionen, diese Konzepte, die unsere Aufmerksamkeit blockieren, aus ihrem Bau herauszuladen. Okay, so now let me see if I can make it simpler. Und jetzt lass mich mal schauen, ob ich es vereinfachen kann. Less conceptually clogged up. And the example I've used fairly commonly here is if you get lost, which I've done with Marie-Louise in this forest.

[22:22]

And you can get lost in the various forests around here quite easily. At least I can. I don't know about you. And if you do, and you're two or three hours, it's summer out there, but it's sleeting in the forest. Sleeting? Hageln? Okay. Also da draußen ist, du bist schon zwei, drei Stunden da drin, und draußen scheint die Sonne, aber im Wald da hagelt es. a human being appears on the path. And you think, oh, wonderful, a human being. Maybe he knows where we might be. And you're not thinking, I don't like this kind of person.

[23:24]

I'm not going to ask him where we are. Let me see his psychological profile before I talk to him. No, there's just a good, I'm so glad you're not a donkey. Yeah, so where the, how the heck do we get out of here? So that is, we could say, a fundamental experience of some kind of mutual identity. And I've spoken to a lot of people who were in New York when the Twin Towers were destroyed. And sometimes they mention the dust and the stuff and so forth.

[24:39]

But mostly they mention how everybody in New York felt connected. They felt close to people in the street. So Buddhism maybe says, Chinese Buddhism maybe says, let's not wait until there's a crisis, a blizzard or a war, to decide that we belong to each other or are related to each other. I understand this is a very simplistic example. But I think we all actually feel that sometimes.

[25:45]

I don't know, Christmas or Easter or in a blizzard. Is that snow or is it just wind? A blizzard is when it's so snowy you can't see. A schneesturm, yeah, okay. A schneesturm, yeah, that's right. Did you say that? Yes. Okay, so now I can go on? Yes, please. Okay. And my sense of practice is that when practice matures... Your baseline feeling with everyone you meet is like that. You don't really care who they are or what they're like or anything. Just you feel like you're with your friend.

[26:54]

Then you have the opposite problem. You think everyone's your friend and they turn out not to be. Why aren't we friends? I feel friendly toward you. So there are those kind of problems. The Dhammapada says, no one can find anywhere on the planet who is never criticized. And no one can find anyone on the planet who is always praised. Yes, and here we are. Okay. So we have this institution we're developing. Also, wir haben diese Institutionen, die wir entwickeln.

[28:10]

And for me, since it at one point didn't exist, I'm always aware that it didn't exist. Und für mich, weil es ja auch eine Zeit lang nicht existiert hat, mir ist immer bewusst, mir ist immer gewahr, dass das nicht existiert hat. It's just an appearance. Einfach eine Erscheinung. Yeah. Really, it's just an appearance. Es ist wirklich einfach eine Erscheinung. And it used to be, as you know, this was a carpentry shop. Now it's, yeah, some of those things are similar, but the appearance is different. Now, remembering when none of this had appeared, And Neil is right here in front of me. I think you came to the first Sashin in Maria Lach.

[29:16]

And it wasn't a room in any way arranged for a Zendo. And it was the first sashin. For years I said I wouldn't do a sashin in Europe. Because I knew if I did a sashin in Europe, I'd have to live here the rest of my life. Because you can't start people in practicing at that level and then say, I'm going back to America, sorry. So that was a crucial moment. And there were two rooms, and one room was kind of crappy, crappy, excuse my language, and we kind of put up partitions or something, and... Into the bigger room.

[30:23]

Yeah. And you were sort of on the edge of the other room, right? So it wasn't... So satisfactory as a place to do a Sashim. And I brought two students with me, Philip Whalen and Miriam Bobcov. And Philip was only interested, he's a poet and a totally wonderful person, and he was only interested in literary allusions. And Miriam Bobcov is also a wonderful person. Who just died recently of cancer, unfortunately. But she's a person who would know a wildflower that only bloomed for 15 minutes on a Thursday.

[31:24]

Once a year. And she was in total culture shock. And she didn't know how to function. Really, she just didn't function. So I had to instantly teach everyone how to do meals, serve the food, everything. A tiny kitchen. A tiny kitchen, yeah. And Neil wasn't sure he liked me or wasn't sure it was the kind of zen he wanted. Very painful. And so I thought, oh gosh, you know, what will we do and how can I win Neil over?

[32:55]

But you did come to the second Sashin. After that Sashin? Yes, because he wanted to come back one year later and that was too long for me. So you came, oh, I won you over fast. Okay. Okay. So we now have this institution. And the institution is a place for you and I to meet, to practice together. And the institution is also a place where you can create the conditions where the circumstances teach you. So it's a place for Dharma practice as well as teacher-disciple practice. And it's also a place for the Sangha to develop its own teaching identity.

[33:58]

And part of that in the Chinese idea is... And I confess I don't really understand it as thoroughly as I might at least. In other words, the conception, if you're a musician, or a composer, and you want your music played in a hall which works for the music, Some concert halls work better than others. And in New York there's a lot of debate whether Carnegie Hall is better than the Lincoln Center, etc. And in New York there are big discussions about whether the Carnegie Hall is better than the Lincoln Hall and so on.

[35:38]

There are certain configurations, configurations, proportions that work better for practice than others. And I think there's a general feeling that this Zendo and this former China Rai shop... Somehow functions better to develop the Sangha than the previous Zendo. So I'm trying to figure out you know, what floor do we put in? How do we make this room and the building relate to each other so that it may induce this mutual experience, fundamental experience of practice and compassion?

[36:44]

And Tara, I, for instance, I have 100% intention to make it happen. But actually I really don't know how to make it happen. So all I can do is depend on you. Is depend on our practicing together to somehow show the way. So that's enough on that theme for a few minutes anyway.

[37:53]

But it is fully my intention. And I think we have the resources here. But how to do it, I don't know. You're the lunch cook. You have to leave or something. Okay. So I have to shape up in 15 minutes. Okay. So let me shift to starting points again. The secret... I'd like to emphasize today in this seminar is, emphasize it even more strongly than I have in the past, is attention. And I'd like to just say now that attention is a dynamic of awareness A dynamic of consciousness.

[39:06]

And the essential condition of appearance. And I would like to discuss this further as it comes up in you, as it does come up in you. But I right now just want to simply say, attention is the dynamic of consciousness, but it's not consciousness. And it's the dynamic of awareness, but it's not awareness. It's a little bit like the door or the stairs are a dynamic of this room, if you were going to get into the room. But the door or the stairs is not the room.

[40:18]

Okay. Okay. So... So as you discover a tension... and develop attention by making use of attention. And the fact of Buddhism starting with vows and precepts is basically a saying, it starts with attention. And what are the vows and intention? Just wise choices to bring attention to. No, we could, and I won't say except to reference it, Tara again sensed that

[41:23]

it was easier for her to follow intentions that arose on their own And we can also speak about ones, as Sukhiroshi would often say, your innermost request. But discovering your innermost request is a practice in itself. The inner request you feel most comfortable with, really. It's how you want to live. If you have the courage and energy. Okay. Now we can explore inner requests and intentions Starting with the basic biological intention to stay alive.

[42:45]

An infant on a table doesn't want to fall off the table. And when it almost does, it doesn't want to. But you get older and then you want to fall off the table. Life isn't the way you like it. Okay. So we can explore intention on various levels. But right now, What I've said, the most basic thing I've said, is vows and precepts are things you can bring attention to. They have no meaning unless you bring attention to them. Okay. Okay. So, as I said, attention is something that develops through attending to it.

[44:09]

I'm going to, you might take as a kind of a vow to attend to attention. And anytime you have nothing better to do, you're in the dentist's office and you've forgotten to bring a book. Du sitzt im Zahnarzt-Wartezimmer und hast vergessen, ein Buch mitzuhören. And all of the magazines are about race cars, which don't interest you at the moment. Alle Zeitschriften auf dem Tisch, da geht es um Rennautos, und das interessiert dich in dem Moment gerade nicht. So you just decide to bring attention to attention. Und dann entschließt du dich einfach, Aufmerksamkeit zur Aufmerksamkeit zu bringen. And you explore that. Und das erforscht du. Now, what I emphasized just before I left for the United States earlier this year, January 2nd, no, January 10th or 11th or 12th or something.

[45:28]

What? 9th? Yeah, well, whatever, I don't know. is that I would suggest that at the beginning of every Zazen period and any other time you have nothing better to do, bring attention to your spine. Right now I can feel the entire length of my spine. And since I've done this very, very often, I have an articulated feeling, which I didn't used to have, an articulated feeling of my spine. in the pelvis, starting from the so-called sit bone, and through the waist area, and then along where the ribs come out from it.

[46:41]

And up to where the head rests on the top of the spine. And as I've often pointed out, and then the feeling of the spine, even when there's no spine going through the head, up to the crown chakra. As your attentional field your attentional skills develop you can more and more feel you know vertebrates and strength and softness in the spine.

[48:07]

And you can almost feel like you're, as I've used the word sometimes, illuminating the spine. Illuminating? Illuminating. You illuminate the room? Yes, no, in German, the one that I think of now is like enlightenment, and I don't want that same word. Well, let's enlighten the spine, why not? I want you all to have enlightened spines and Buddha bodies. This is my 100% intention. You have to help me, though. Okay.

[49:13]

There she goes. There they go. Thank you for taking care of us. Now, I suggest, you know, it's useful to use zazen as a practice of bringing attention to the spine. It makes sense to be the first thing you do when you sit down. Und das macht Sinn, das zu der ersten Sache zu machen, die du tust, wenn du dich hinsetzt. Because you have to discover your posture.

[50:15]

Weil du deine Haltung entdecken musst. And that is much helped. And the main posture zazen is your spine. Und das wird sehr unterstützt. Und die wichtigste Haltung in deinem zazen ist die Wirbelsäule. It's not your poor bent legs. Your poor bent legs are just meant to support your spine. And to fold the heat of your body and energy of your body together. And then lifting up through the spine. And you don't push down through the spine. I can't even imagine how you do it, but anyway, we don't do that. So you lift up through the spine all the way, and then the feeling of the spine becomes...

[51:16]

as real as the physical spine. The feeling of the spine becomes more real just as it's passing through the head, for example, where there's no spine, no bones. So now by bringing attention to the spine, as I say, illuminating, enlightening the spine maybe, You're getting a feeling not only of the physical territory of the spine, but you're also getting a feel for the attention that's brought to the spine.

[52:33]

So you're opening up your posture. Through bringing attention to the spine. But you're also beginning to create the feel of the spine. And as you get to know the feel of the spine, many aspects of practice arise through the feel of the spine, the developed feel of the spine. Okay. Now you have this feel of the spine. And it's almost like, do you say in German, the spine of a book? It's almost like in English we say the spine of the book, where the pages are attached.

[53:59]

It's almost like by getting to know the spine of your body, You start opening the ribs or pages or text of the book. And there's sort of a similarity, too. You can bring attention to a book. But you can't bring attention really to the book until you open it and see what it's about. So as you develop the skill of bringing attention to the spine... And then to the feel of the spine.

[55:03]

And then to the kind of energy that is in the spine all the way up to the top of the head. That feel begins to open up the text of the body. And you're simply by occupying attention And making that more and more satisfying. And absorbing more and more of your attention. Less of your attention goes to distracted, discursive thinking. So one way to lessen discursive comparative thinking.

[56:13]

Especially when it's just spinning the wheels of anxiety and worries and planning. Is to locate that attention in the spine. And if you locate that attention in the spine and get in the... habit of doing that, then in any circumstances, sitting in the dentist chair, dentist waiting room, or sitting in a car, or whatever, you can bring attention to your spine. And that immediately and easily merges with attention to the breath. Now I call this practice the four habitations.

[57:33]

It took me a few months to decide on the to call it something and to call it habitation. So I'm reviewing this because I did speak about it here in Europe a few months ago. Because my reviewing it with you is to get us all on the same spine or page. But it's also my own way to develop the teaching, my experience of the teaching, and my expression of the teaching.

[59:01]

And I use inhabitation because I'm asking you to feel like you're inhabiting your spine. You're shifting from bringing attention to your spine to inhabiting it. You're not just bringing attention to your new apartment. You're now inhabiting your apartment. Likewise with the breath. You're bringing attention to now this habitation of the breath.

[60:09]

You're living in your breath. Now these two ways of thinking, these two practices, to inhabit your spine and to inhabit your breath, are entries to the overall main experience of Zen Buddhism, which is non-duality. Non-duality is to what? inhabit an attentional sphere which has no outside. And how to get there is one of the best entries I know is to develop the habitation of the spine and the habitation of the breast.

[61:16]

And one of the best ways to get there, at least the best I know, is to develop the living spaces of the spine and the breath. Now we have two more habitations to go. So let's skip lunch. This is way more important than eating. No, let's have lunch. Okay, so we have two habitations to go, plus approaching the teaching of non-duality. Yeah, and I have these little toys I brought, you know, that we can practice with what is appearance. This is a little gourd from China. Das ist ein kleiner Kürbis aus China.

[62:39]

Squash? A gourd? Like you make a rattle of? Okay. Anyway. With a nice drawing of a monk with some beads. Es hat eine schöne Zeichnung von einem Mönch mit seinen Perlen. And a character, Kanji. And a kind of not very pretty, but complex stone. Which got somehow into this nice shape over some centuries. And this is the first sort of Buddha I ever had. I presume made of what was once legal ivory.

[63:40]

And I left college, you know, and got on a ship and went to Beirut, Lebanon when I was in college. And I was with a friend who's still a close friend of mine, Earl McGrath, who is now 80 or something. But anyway, we were on the ship together, and he bought me this in Beirut, Lebanon. And every now and then he says, remember I bought you that Buddha, I got you started. Yeah. I say, yes, yeah, okay, Earl, fine, thanks. It was nice of you to buy me this Buddha. It's got me started. And he was the founder of Rolling Stone Records.

[64:49]

And one time I told my daughter who was with him, I said, tell Earl that I taught him everything he knows about rock and roll music. which I did sort of introduce him to rock and roll. And Earl says to Sally, yes, and tell him it took exactly five minutes. So you taught me five minutes of Buddhism, too. Thank you very much. Thanks for translating. You're welcome.

[65:40]

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