For a while, now and then, get in the habit of just having a few minutes a day of naming instead of thinking. And get so that you can feel the state of mind that's different. Because again, all states of mind have a physical component, real body and a mind. And why Zen Buddhism is rooted in the Yogacara school, why Zen Buddhism is rooted in the Yogacara school, The emphasis is that mind and body are interrelated ways of interrelated expressions of aliveness. Why don't we all know this already?

[01:20]

or know it more thoroughly, or know it from childhood. I think we have intuitions of it from childhood. But I think that the demands of civilization, of society and family life We have to make us somehow joined in a common social mind. And we lose our fundamental independence, that way. And we define ourselves primarily through others' experience or others' minds than our own.

[02:54]

How do we recapture, regain our own mind and body? Sometimes we have to take ourselves out of our habitation in thinking. And that's the point of mindfulness practice. To bring us into the what-ness of the world and not the who-ness. To bring us into the activity of the world, its particularity, not its generality. And when you bring your attention, bring your attention, someone's attention, the attention to the breath,

[03:59]

You're bringing your attention, our attention, attention to the activity of the breath. So if you do develop the fruitful habit of continuously being aware of the breath, Yeah, as most of you know, you really change the way the cell functions. But you also just get used to living in the activity of the breath. And you begin to feel the world as an activity. Not as a bunch of things. But an activity that each of us is participating in and creating. So if your attention gets used to living in the activity of being alive, if your attention gets used to living in the activity of the breath,

[05:24]

The moment, by moment, flow of the breath. You actually begin to notice and feel the breathing of others as well. So I don't, when I look at any one of you, I don't see a mental picture. That's a person, that's a male or a female or old or young. I can, yeah, I noticed, I sort of know that too. But more fundamentally, I notice there's a breathing thing there. Yeah, it's not a stone.

[06:40]

And it's, yeah, it's a little different. Everybody's a little different. I can tell you two anecdotes now. Then we should take a break. One is I told recently because it occurred to me. I was on the Berkeley campus, University of California campus in 62 or 63 or something like that. And I worked for the university. organizing conferences like this, but they weren't on Buddhism. And I was going past in the evening, I'd worked in the evening, I was going past a building, crowded with people.

[07:43]

And you couldn't even get in the door. Well, I went around to the side of the building because I knew it well. I had put conferences in this. I put the Berkeley conference, the Berkeley poetry conference in that building. Yeah, so I knew the building, so I went around the side and climbed in the window, which I knew how to do. And I sat on the windowsill. And here was this guy with half of Hawaii around his neck. He was smiling away. I didn't know who it was. Clearly he wasn't an ordinary American. So I... Yeah, I just watched him.

[09:05]

He talked and smiled, you know. It was nice to just be there. I think I should do it. Maybe I can get a beard. There'd be a thousand people here. Anyway, so I went... When I... When we... Left, everyone started streaming out, and I was by the window, so I ended up standing beside this little guy. And he was standing by a car. And he was standing by a car. And they were talking about something, I think, driving to Canada or something. I don't remember. And suddenly this thought popped into my mind. This guy's pretty good. And I thought, where'd that come from? How did I, why did I say that in this little guy standing there? Of course, my teacher, Suki, she was a little guy, too.

[10:23]

Well, he always looked big, but when I saw myself in photographs... Anyway, I thought, this guy's pretty good. And I... Then I noticed I'd coordinated, without knowing it, coordinated my breathing with his breathing. So without knowing it, I'd learned to do that through practicing meditation, didn't even know I had the habit of doing it with each person I met. But as soon as I felt his breathing, he was standing somewhere between the two of you. Yeah. As soon as I felt his breathing, I felt, oh, he's pretty good. I think it was the first trip of the Maharishi to the United States.

[11:47]

Later George Harrison, you know, all that stuff. The other story is I will try to make this even quicker so you have a break. As you know, in Creston, it's a pretty remote place. The nearest real grocery store is about 100 kilometers away. She's been there for some months. And it's, yeah, there's actually bears and and deer and telk and mountain goats and all that stuff. And mountain lions. Yeah, so one morning, the little log house I live in is up above the center. And it's between maybe a five and ten minute pretty fast walk.

[13:04]

And it's about a 15 minute slow walk. Well, one morning it was totally dark and for some reason I didn't have a flashlight. So I walked the path many times, not as often as I've shaved, but many times. But it's very rocky. If you make even a slight wrong turn, you end up in bushes and rocks and... So I'm going along very bravely and slowly. Mountain lion. Because you do want to sort of like notice what's going on, but I couldn't see anything. So I got down, and normally you turn a little path there, and I missed that, and I went down.

[14:17]

The difference is about like that, but if you go there, you end up in a different place. It's just a small curve, but if you don't take it, you end up somewhere else. So I went this way and suddenly I noticed a deep silence. My breathing was coordinated with a herd of deer. I'd walked into it. It's about a group that I used to... I've seen about 15 deer, all standing silently, and I was in the middle. And there were about 15 deer.

[15:19]

There was one here and one here. But there was no fear. And they had no fear. I think if I'd been in waking mind, as soon as I got near, they would have run off. Probably a technique our ancestors used to hunt. Yeah, but they... Anyway, they knew I wasn't... They hoped I wasn't deceptive. So they were just there and they said, he looks a little different than us, but he's one of us. So really it was great. I was standing there and I could feel this...

[16:22]

protoplasm, this field of living cells, you know, all around. Sorry, I kind of enjoyed it for a minute. It was fantastic. It was like being in love. Yeah, so then I stepped very slowly and they parted and I went down to the zenda. When you sit in the zendo, you have a kind of herd of dear students around. Dear fellow practitioners, that's not such a different feeling. Okay, so this morning and last night I've suggested that we bring attention to the mind

[17:37]

In certain ways. Like gaining. Like activity. Like, within this mind, is there also original mind? Yeah, so on. talking about how we bring attention to the contents of mind and the field of mind. And now you know that, and you already know that it's a fruitful thing to do. That's the most important thing, to know that. And you can do it in your own way. So afterwards, after the break, I'd like to have some feeling from you of what interests you in this or what you'd like to talk about or what you'd like me to talk about.

[19:06]

I planned to ask you first thing in the morning, but then I thought I'd carry it away then. So let's come back in about half an hour. Thank you for translating.

[19:15]

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