Please, somebody, I mean yesterday you had small groups. And I think we've decided as a Sangha that we're not going to review the small groups. But if any of you would like to continue the discussion, but including me this time, here I am. I mean, here somebody is anyway. But if any of you want to continue the discussion and join me in it, then there is now the possibility, and here I am, or at least there is something here. Yes, Dieter? I will translate it for you. Yesterday, in our small group, we talked about, among other things,

[01:02]

Yesterday in our small group, we talked among other things about modalities of noticing. Could you speak a little more clearly so I can understand your English? I mean directly at me, yeah. We also talked about that in the context of with every appearance mind arises and to notice that. And we came to the conclusion that there are actually different kinds of emotions and that there is one kind of emotion that So we came to kind of differentiation between different kinds of noticing.

[02:18]

One is it takes you out of noticing the appearance. It takes you away from it. It leads to being or to focus on the state of mind. and another modality which is more rooted in awareness. and another kind of more rooted in awareness allows you to stay in the perception of the appearance, but at the same time to notice that mind arises. And the question that arises for me is a little bit,

[03:20]

So the question that appears for me from that discussion is, is noticing without thinking a kind of prerequisite for noticing the mind on each appearance? Is noticing without thinking a prerequisite for noticing the mind within each or as a part of each appearance? No, I don't think so. But if your group discussed all those things, I can go home now. This is great. So many modalities. More than German cars. Different models. Yeah, okay.

[04:37]

Well, no, but this is great. So I'm glad that... Anybody else have anything along these lines to bring into the discussion? Yes, Josef. Yes, I remember very often the seminar quotation of Gunther Schmidt, and he said that my physiologist found out that only 10% from the information which meets our senses comes to the conscious. Ten percent, that's a big percentage.

[05:38]

I think it's much less. About one percent. Or less. From the impressions that we have about our senses, it is only 10% of the impressions, the sensual stimuli, that then arrive in our consciousness. And the rest is just extrapolated by consciousness. Yes. So everything else is simply calculated by these 10%. This reminds me of that very much. Yes. Yes, I... Certainly something like that is happening. I don't know about the percentage, but yeah. Thank you. The German word for perception is to take as truth, something like that, to take as truth, and he says that the word shouldn't be truth-taking, but it should be truth-giving.

[06:44]

Okay. All right. Good. Thanks. Yes? I've asked myself quite often why I don't always have the need or the wish to bring my thinking into perceptions or to stay just in perceptions? So I've tried to observe, to watch what are the processes that happen when I have words in my mind or when I'm thinking.

[08:06]

Of course I noticed many different things, and in addition to these normal thoughts that completely take you out of perception, there are these thoughts where I forget the senses, and when I remember the situation afterwards, then I can't remember much about what was around me. That's what I don't strive for. And I've noticed various things, but the one thing that I don't strive for is that there are certain kinds of thoughts that take me out of the sensorium. And then when I think back to remember the situation, I don't remember much of the surroundings of the actual situation. Then I also noticed that, and he mentioned that in a lecture yesterday, I don't know if that's what's in there,

[09:20]

is that there are always a lot of ideas. Ideas about how to live the next life, how to continue to practice in the next moment. Ideas that come from somewhere and they feel good and I try them out. Ideas. But one thing that I I maybe like about it or that lets me still stay there is that, and maybe I'm not sure if that's what you meant yesterday, but it seems to me that it's also where many ideas come up about what the next step might be also about Prada. What is the location where many ideas come up? Yeah, it's in the thoughts. In our thoughts, yeah.

[10:24]

Yeah, is that correct? In the conscious process where the words are present. And that's one of the reasons that I still stay in that location. Then I looked at these moments when I already formulate concepts, but I have this state where ideas come or where I ... When I formulate myself through various thoughts, I kind of watch myself going through the thoughts, and then I remember, I'm not sure if I'm catching you. Or maybe I'll try the other way around.

[11:43]

When I remember, I can remember situations differently, remembering also the room I was in or the birds that were singing simultaneously, when I'm in formulating concepts or putting in words experiences, thinking through my practice, and also these ideas that are coming up. So I remember these moments, but in a much wider sense, because I also have awareness around that makes me remember these moments, that there's like this cloud of words, but around there is the space of sensations. So, yeah. And maybe one more thing is that I noticed when feelings come up and also feelings that are not so comfortable. that it is then very helpful not to think through it in words, but to immediately notice

[12:53]

that in such cases it's helpful to not think about it but actually to just notice through the senses. because then the feeling stays a physical sensation or feeling and it's not attached to the concepts of where it comes from and why and so forth. I've been wondering very long why I do not feel this need to keep thoughts out of my head. You like the thoughts being in your head, or you just find it fruitful? I find it fruitful also, silence and non-silence. Kisla, how does it feel for you, who have been practicing too, to have your daughter speaking about these things, and your father, and you tried to teach her things, and now she's spouting Buddhism.

[14:09]

I have a special feeling when she told it, but I can't express it. That's just new. Thanks. This is Uncle Otmar. Soon we'll have the granddaughter talk about Buddhism. So Otmar, you were going to say something. Yeah. One thing I keep wondering when I practice with these states of mind, Like noticing appearance or noticing the mind that is generated through noticing the appearance of an object.

[15:20]

Or the activity that occurs through that exchange. How much can I anchor myself in that and how much can I To what extent can I anchor myself in that and to what extent can I just drop other more familiar states of mind? And I always have a voice on the back of my mind saying, but the other thing is also right. when we want to leave after lunch with cars, and the cars would be gone, then nobody would be able to anchor themselves in a state of mind saying, no cars, no appearance, no mind, there is no car.

[16:33]

We would immediately do everything we can to look for that car which must be existent as an entity somewhere, even if it's on its way to Poland or somewhere. We had that experience. We went out to the parking lot. in what town? Rostock. Rostock. That's close to Poland. Yeah. And the car was gone. And Marie-Louise said, it was here, it's gone. I said, no, no, we must have parked over there. She was right. I kept looking for it, but it was gone. What do you do with that? You say, okay, there's no car? Yeah, we said, there's no car. LAUGHTER What did you do then?

[17:49]

We went to... We complained. Somebody gave us a drive all the way back to Yonzo. Okay. Yeah, but is this... I mean, is... But it's also right to say, this darn car, it has to be somewhere. Where is this entity, my car? Yes, it's definitely a different state of mind. It's not this state of mind of appearance and the appearance of a miracle and no appearance, no car. It's definitely a different state of mind. It's not the state of mind of saying no appearance, no car. Yeah, I know. Yes. I see it almost as a contradiction. So how do I get that under one head? into one life?

[19:00]

Well, practically speaking, there's no problem. You know when the car is there and when it's just a freedom from the image or concept of the car. But there's certainly a difference. And I think noticing the difference is part of beginning to develop an experiential vocabulary for these things. And partly in relation to what you just said a minute ago. Proust has a wonderful sort of section where he talks about reading. and he was reading before lunch in a room and somebody came in and brought him lunch on a tray and he was, if I remember the passage correctly, he was rather annoyed because it interrupted his reading.

[20:32]

But now when he looks back, he doesn't remember at all what he was reading. But he remembers the birds and the sunlight and the person coming in with a tray and his being annoyed. He remembers all the circumstances, but not what he was reading. but he remembers the birds and the sunlight and the person who came in with the tablet. He remembers all the circumstances, but not at all what he read. Okay. Yes? When I work with appearance, when I work with appearance, then I generate a field and I try to see myself in relationship to these appearances.

[21:57]

And then I can bring to consciousness that it's my mind that's perceiving this. And I can also feel the field. But what feeling mind is, that I don't really know. If you can feel the field of mind, why do you have a problem with the idea of feeling mind? Maybe because I'm bringing into consciousness that that which I'm hearing and seeing is mind. Well, it is mind as well.

[23:06]

Es ist auch Geist. Well, let me try to, if I may, unless somebody else has something, we can come back, try to look at this kind of experiential vocabulary. Lass mich versuchen, diesen Erfahrungswortschatz anzuschauen. Okay, but first let me say, you know, in the background of most of our reading of Buddhism and our own discussion is that self and And our own discussion there is What do you mean with our own discussion?

[24:17]

Not just in Buddhism in general, but the discussion right here. And, you know, and... The way I feel about it is that we've all been tricked into thinking our self is more important than our body. And so, I mean, a person who commits suicide isn't killing their body, they're killing their self. Suicide means self-killing. Now, there's lots of reasons for suicide, but the particular when somebody's, their body is fine, but their self is having a problem.

[25:34]

So they decide, well, the way to get rid of the self is to kill the body. It does work. But the problem is the self, not the body. So if you can do something about the self, you can let the body happily stay alive. Well, as we said the other day, I mean, I'm just talking, right? We said the other day the infant who almost falls off the changing table really doesn't want to fall off. Let's say the infant is concerned with the body, like your little boy, and not so much with his or herself.

[26:39]

But somehow, because we want to shape each other and relate to each other certain ways, we trick our children, our infants, into thinking the self is more important than the body. So we're... the deeper levels of our thinking, we're concerned with the survival of the self.

[27:54]

Is it self-successful? No. I can't merge those words. Is it successful? Do people like it? So we want our self to be liked and we want our self to survive and so forth. We want it to be liked and what's the other thing? Survive. And we want our body to survive too usually, but that's secondary. First is the self. And it's the way we build society, etc. I think we've all been tricked into valuing the self. to this degree.

[28:58]

And that's so reinforced by everybody, you know, what your job is and how much, you know, etc., Ideally, in all moments of repose, we're just happy to be alive. What could possibly be more important than just happily be alive? Yeah. Okay. A big part of the problem is that more or less everybody supports this view.

[30:14]

And now Buddhism, one of the basics of Buddhism, is to literally, to intentionally perform acts of loving kindness, to perform acts of loving kindness, In body, speech, and mind. In private and public. Okay. That's not so bad. Okay, now what happens? If you perform... acts of loving-kindness, if this sangha takes upon itself each person to perform

[31:38]

Handlungen der liebevollen Freundlichkeit auszuführen Handlungen der liebevollen Freundlichkeit auszuführen And we do it with our mind, with our body, and with our speech. And in private, it means you tend to think acts of loving kindness, even in private. And in public. With others. Okay. If we all take this as a kind of view, suddenly the Sangha realizes we're on a path. The Sangha realizes a path is opening up before us.

[33:06]

And together we can recognize that our human life works better through acts of loving kindness. And then because that becomes a path for us, the whole way that we each reinforce in everybody's sense of self dissipates a lot. wird die ganze Art und Weise, wie wir füreinander, miteinander das Selbstgefühl eines jeden Einzelnen verstärken, wird dieses Selbstgefühl sich ganz stark vermindern. We may not always feel kindly or loving, etc. Wir fühlen uns vielleicht nicht immer freundlich oder liebend.

[34:14]

But when we come here together, we can say it. These are, we are with our Sangha who at least we want to perform acts of loving kindness. And that changes the dynamic of the self in relation to each other. Because that the selfness of self is very reinforced by the selfness of self of everyone else. You know, if you're in a situation where everybody is measuring themselves by their job, their position, their office, what school they went to, etc., I mean, You can't be free of that. Or your practice has to be pretty mature to be free of that.

[35:18]

But one of the advantages of a Sangha and having a place to meet as we do is that we can reinforce each other's Bodhisattva path. I'm glad so many translators are right in the front. Me too, me too. Because I can't help. So let me say something about experiential vocabulary. Sukhirashi said something like, thinking is very useful to prepare you to practice.

[36:43]

You use thinking to decide to practice, to decide it's a good idea, etc., but the thinking itself is not exactly practice. Du benutzt das Denken, um dich zu entschließen zu praktizieren und zu entschließen, dass das eine gute Idee ist und so weiter, aber das Denken selber ist nicht praxis. So we need to describe our experience in ways in which it helps us practice. Also müssen wir unsere Erfahrungen auf Arten und Weisen beschreiben, die uns dabei helfen zu praktizieren. We are, what can I say, we are biologically located in our body, in this body. I don't know if it's ours, but this. So you're biologically your body, whether you like it or not. Too bad for you, you're biologically a body. But you may not be, and probably are not, fully attentionally a body.

[37:59]

It's a decision A wisdom decision. Why is a decision so important? I mean, we make a cultural decision to hook our infants to self. So we can make a decision to emphasize becoming an attentional body as well as a biological body and not simply a self-referential body. I mean we do these things, but we do them not always in the best proportion.

[39:04]

Okay. So how do you generate an attentional, not just a biological body? Okay, so what I've been said the last couple of days, Friday and Saturday. And one, I'll go over it again, just for the sake of getting it together. You have to start somewhere.

[40:05]

And the most classic is to start with the breath. But I'm also emphasizing this weekend and recently to start with the spine. So you bring attention to the spine. Du bringst Aufmerksamkeit zur Wirbelsäule. And I think you'll notice that your spine is sort of dormant. Sleeping in your back. Und ich glaube, du wirst entdecken, dass deine Wirbelsäule schläfrig ist oder schläft in deinem Rücken. You hardly know it's there. It's just sound asleep in your back. Du bemerkst kaum, dass sie da ist. Sie schläft einfach tief in deinem Rücken. So you decide to wake up the spine. Also beschließt du, die Wirbelsäule aufzuwecken. So you can do it with the masseuse, but you can do it actually probably more effectively just bringing attention to the spine.

[41:09]

What's going on? They think you're funny. I think I'm funny too. Okay, so you bring attention to the spine. As I've said, which develops attention. I mean, think of it as a muscle or something. You're developing the muscle of attention. Du kannst dir das wie einen Muskel vorstellen oder so. Du entwickelst den Muskel der Aufmerksamkeit. Or the power of attention. And you're asking attention to illuminate the biological body.

[42:11]

Und du bittest die Aufmerksamkeit, den biologischen Körper mit Licht zu durchfluten. If we're rational, intelligent, mindful beings... We're going to be more intelligent and mindful if attention is throughout our body. And we're going to be healthier. You see, again, all these articles and magazines about people who meditate regularly tend to live longer, have less diseases and so forth. I guess it's true.

[43:12]

I don't know. I feel okay. But why would putting your legs in a pretzel and sitting there... Why would that make you healthier? Because it's not just about the pretzel. It's about the pretzel allows you to bring attention, allows you to stabilize your body in a way that allows you to bring attention to everything you're doing. And to fill the body with attention. Yes.

[44:17]

You quoted Suzuki Roshi, who said, we start to think about the practice of Buddhism and to practice. This is not the same as practicing. Here we start now. You quoted Suzuki Roshi thinking about Buddhism starting to practice not the same as practicing exactly. So we start thinking about giving attention to our back. So what's the relationship between this thinking about it and attention? Thinking about it is some kind of tension, clearly, but it's not the whole deal. That's all. Okay. Okay. Let me just continue and I'll see if I can respond to what you've said.

[45:20]

Okay. So you bring attention, you think about bringing attention to your back, and you do. But the attention that illuminates the spine from its base to the crown chakra Aber die Aufmerksamkeit, die Licht in die Wirbelsäule bringt, vom Kreuzbein bis hin zur Schädeldecke, das ist nicht Denken. Es hat diese Bemühung ausgelöst, aber es ist nicht Denken. And as I've said, you feel the spine through the head, even though there's no spine there.

[46:24]

So that feel, we can say that feel is attention. And we can also say that feel is mind. Yeah. It's not vertebrae. And it's not thinking. It's something that's a noticing involved, but it's a noticing related to feeling, as much as I can use that word. Okay. So, through this process, spine, inhabiting the spine, not just bringing attention to the spine, inhabiting the feel and field of the spine, and inhabiting the breath which is

[47:34]

arises within the field of the spine. Where do I live? I don't live in Colorado or Yanisov. I live in this field that arises in breath and spine. And this has become so absorbent of attention. And so satisfying to attention. that no outer scenery can compare. You can change the scenery around me, mountains, rivers, etc. Well, okay, but where I'm at, my inhabitation is in this sphere of breath and spine.

[49:08]

And the mind and the space being generated by this attentional biological phenomena which I happen to happened when I was born. And it's been happening through practice. Okay. That's that little riff. Okay. Can you wait? Okay. Okay. One of the things that's necessary or essential, something like that, to distinguish is the difference between the field of mind and the contents of mind.

[50:20]

Eines der Dinge, das wichtig ist zu unterscheiden, ist zwischen dem Feld des Geistes und den Inhalten des Geistes. You can easily distinguish between the cows, Kohlbrenner's cows, I mean Kohlbrenner's cows, and the field. And so you can hear the words the contents of mind and the field of mind. And while it's clear that sometimes coal burners' cows are in the field and sometimes they're not, just because it's clear with coal burners' cows, it's not so clear in our own experience. So how do you distinguish the experience between the contents?

[51:21]

And the field, which is actually a kind of pasture. Okay, you have to find some way to do that. Okay. All right. One of the fairly simple ways is during Zazen you hear an airplane. And you've all heard me say this. Not all of you, but 99% of you. Well, not 99%. Anyway, so you can hear the airplane And you automatically, because we've linked or addicted attention to the objects of attention,

[52:55]

To the objects of perception. To the contents or the objects it presents. And also to the directionality. In other words, when attention goes to the objects, there's a directionality to go to comparative thinking. And Dieter brought up the word Hishirio. Okay. Fushirio means not thinking. This is a Japanese word. Shirio means measured thinking. Und Shiryu bedeutet messendes Denken.

[54:04]

So basically it means comparative thinking. Und im Grunde genommen bedeutet das vergleichendes Denken. So Fu Shiryu means not measured thinking. Und Fu Shiryu bedeutet nicht messendes Denken. And He Shiryu means non-measured thinking. Und He Shiryu bedeutet, wir hatten mal einen Vorschlag, entdenken. And you can go back into the earliest Buddhism and they... She's just going on by herself. I mean, I'm not needed. You're not a non-problem. Yeah. Yeah, okay. It's a non-problem? No, it's a real problem. I need to look over at you. Okay. I know we should take a break in an hour or so.

[55:07]

Give me another few minutes. Okay. So, If you go back in Buddhism to the very beginning, in various ways they state it, this concept of non-thinking comes up. That's the famous quote about Yaoshan and so forth. So I think we need to be able to notice, think about, observe, that noticing is not the same as thinking. And I think we have to be able to notice that noticing is not the same as thinking.

[56:30]

And now why is it different? Because what happens when you notice and don't think about what you notice, it's a world of difference. It's both forms of mentation. Well, you do your thing and I'll sit here. Please, no. Okay. So there are mental formations, but some mental formations it's useful to call consciousness and thinking, and some mental formations it's not useful to call consciousness and thinking.

[57:32]

Okay. So again, you've got this airplane. And it looks like a large percentage of the southern German airplanes pass overhead here. The morning sky is a game of tic-tac-toe. Do you know what tic-tac-toe is? Yeah, always. where you put an x and a zero. Okay. You can, I think all of you can, you hear the airplane and you can feel the word airplane go toward the sound.

[58:37]

And when... Attention turns into the name airplane. There tends to be a directionality toward thinking. Now, if you peel the name off, as I say, like it's a label, you peel the label off the airplane. The first direction was you add to attention, there's a sound, perception, and to that you add the name airplane. And now we've taken the name off airplane. So you've also changed the directionality. So instead of going toward thinking, you're going away from thinking by taking off the name.

[59:56]

And then you can just hear the sound. And it's, as I often say, it's like the music of the spheres. It's amazing what one little kind of one single-engine plane of some guy flying in for Sunday can fill the sky with the music of the spheres. Okay, now that you've taken the name off, and to change the directionality, you're moving toward the field of mind and not toward consciousness. And you can then maybe even take the sound away, the perception of the sound away, and you just have a feel, a feel of mind itself without even a sound.

[61:16]

Now, Yogacara Zen practice is now you embody that feeling. So you know that, bodily know that feeling with almost no sound and certainly no name or directionality toward thinking. So that you now have embodied the feel of a mind which doesn't have a directionality toward thinking. And the feel of a mind which has appeared when you pull the label or the name off something.

[62:17]

So it's no longer an entity. Just a sound. So embodying that feeling So you now know the physical field of a mind more or less free of contents and you know the physical field of a mind with contents. Okay, now. One other example I haven't used in many years. Then we'll have a prayer. You're sunbathing. And somehow the sea and the sun are bigger than our thoughts. And I think maybe one reason we like sunbathing and stay there until we're burned to a crisp And because we like the feeling of the mind formed by nothing but the sun and the sea,

[63:37]

And maybe you hear birds, seagulls. And maybe you hear children down the, Susanna's children, way down the beach. But they're just sounds from another world. And you can maybe, in that kind of experience too, and you can find similar experiences going to sleep and so forth, You can develop your experiential embodied vocabulary. And it takes this kind of intentional act to actually use this more subtle vocabulary of mind in your ordinary circumstances.

[65:03]

So you establish this feel of the mind, of the sunbathing mind. So your body knows it. So when your boss comes into your office and you're looking out the window, And he says, what are you doing? You say, I'm sunbathing in the Dharma. You're fired. All right, thank you very much. I haven't forgotten, by the way, Peter. Okay, thanks. Thank you for translating. Was that harder than usual?

[66:06]

No, not at all. I was bathing. You were sunbathing. And you were going to say something.

[66:13]

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