So I'd like to have some discussion and so I'd like someone to say something. Whatever comes to mind. Who will be second? Okay, oh, the Rosh. As I said, you. I would like him to say a few words about hearing and seeing. Okay. But that's a whole additional day tomorrow.

[01:05]

Can you stay? But I'll keep it in mind and see if I can find a way to speak about it. Someone else? Yes. You didn't speak about the second part of the koan, the broom, and she's interested in this. Okay. I'll keep that in mind too. Next. These are easy. You just say something and I say next. There is nothing to do, nowhere to go. It's a bit hopeless. Seems a bit. It's not hopeless at all. If you are sunbathing, and you're lying in New York City on the roof, or here you're out by the Donau, or at a swimming pool, and you're just lying there in the sun.

[02:43]

Sometimes you hear things. Maybe if it's the beach you hear children or a dog or seagulls. But it's in some kind of space where you don't care whether it's near or far, it's just somewhere. And sometimes you hardly know that maybe two hours or three hours have passed and you're quite sunburned. Okay. So that mind of sunbathing is actually something like the mind of Zazen. And it's something like the mind where you have no place to go and nothing to do. You feel quite satisfied and complete.

[03:58]

And you may know that you have some things to do, but it's far away. So that's the mind of no place to go and nothing to do. Now, can you have that mind simultaneously in the middle of being active, busy, etc.? Yes, you can. And one of the basic ideas of this koan, is that an assumption of Yunyan and Daowu that it's possible to have these at least two minds simultaneously. Now this is also a cultural idea in China but it is also

[05:05]

When it's developed, a Buddhist idea, and the five ranks of Dongshan, are really versions of having two minds at once. The Chinese... Our traditional Chinese culture is known for having this idea you're a Confucian and you're a Taoist. And we usually understand them as being two different times in a person's life. Even in India, I believe, there's a tradition of you're active and a family person until about 35 or something, and then you have a different kind of life after that.

[06:21]

And in China, there's a tradition that when you're parents die dear mother or father you take a year off from your So the Confucian point of view is the view of taking responsibility for the world, of being a bureaucrat or an official or something. And the Taoist more lives in a place like this. By a waterfall. By an outdoor toilet. And so forth. Okay. And so there's a tradition that when a parent dies, you take a year off.

[07:23]

And maybe you go into the mountains. Or you live in one of these little garden huts, like there's many in Germany. I suppose they have them here, too. Yeah. And there seems to be actually, just to continue the point, some basic physiological sense for it. They've seen that people have a high rate incidence of getting cancer after a parent dies. Higher rate than average. And so perhaps if you take a year off or so, it's usually during the two years after a parent dies there's a higher incidence of cancer.

[08:31]

So perhaps a culture like China, which has a lot of continuity from generation to generation, People may have noticed that people tend to get sick after a parent dies. And they do less so if they take a year off. So I think actually all of you will have or will have parents who die. It's probably wise to have some difference in your life for a year or so after this. Because even if you had a bad relationship with your mother or father, good or bad, you're Deeply, physiologically connected with your parents, obviously.

[09:43]

Okay. So usually people understand, commentators, that you're a Taoist in part of your life and a Confucian in the productive middle years of your life. But the idea was much more. Really. That these two ways of being are simultaneous. So you're working in your office. If you work in an office. And every now and then you look out at the sky. At that moment you become a Taoist. And you just let go and you sort of sunbathing. Freud said, I think, there's a deep connection between the artist and daydreaming.

[10:47]

I think just that you bring Zazen into your daily life is already bringing this other mind into your daily life. But now the question is, yes, maybe you find yourself in a different viscosity of mind during zazen. But that's possible during the day. Okay, so let me give you another example. There's what I call immediate consciousness, and intermediate consciousness, and borrowed consciousness. And this is a teaching that the Dalai Lama gives too, it's not just Zen, it's also

[11:54]

Generally Buddhist. So let's say that in this lovely forest you have here. I'm speaking to more than just what you said. So you're walking along. Maybe you're with a friend. And you're not speaking. Yeah, there's a feeling of a tree. And maybe there's two or three trees over here as a sort of group. And you're not thinking. But you feel present in the situation. Okay, let's call that immediate consciousness. And then, while you're walking, your friend says to you, oh, look over there. Somebody's been here, and they've cut two trees down over there.

[12:59]

And you notice that. Oh, yes, look at that. And then you go back to your walking. And then your friend says, oh, darn it, it's nearly 12 o'clock, and I have to make two phone calls, and so forth. Now, the first, while you're walking along, not saying anything or just being together. With each other and with the path and the trees. Let's call that immediate consciousness. And I think you can physically feel what that's like. Okay. And then, When you or your friend points out, oh, there's two trees over there that were cut down. Let's call that secondary consciousness. And then, when one of you decides you have to make some phone calls and do things like that.

[14:05]

Let's call that borrowed consciousness. Now, the term for it is borrowed consciousness. Some people say, what do you mean borrowed consciousness? But borrowed consciousness is like if I asked Nicole what her birth date is. She tells me it's such and such a month and such and such a day. She doesn't know that for any reason except people told her. It depends on calendars. Yeah, and her parents remembering the day or something, writing it down. Okay. Borrowed consciousness is a consciousness that you can't get from the situation. It's not nourished by your immediate activity. So most of our educational system It's all about borrowed consciousness.

[15:23]

What you learn from books and what you learn from other people and so forth. Okay. Now, borrowed consciousness is extremely useful. But it's exhausting. At the end of the day, of a day full of borrowed consciousness, you want a television set and a beer and, you know, so forth. Okay. So the difference now is that what I'm calling secondary consciousness is still in the immediate situation. It's not about a phone call you have to make. It's about the fact that you notice that the trees were cut down.

[16:25]

So I think you can... If you imagine this or you practice it with a friend or taking a walk, you can feel the difference between immediate consciousness and going into secondary consciousness and then back into immediate consciousness. And the experience of borrowed consciousness. which is much like the difference when you wake up and you'd like to go back to sleep, but you start thinking about what you have to do today, that's like borrowed consciousness. Okay. Now, it's rather useful to notice this. Because if you start noticing the difference between borrowed and immediate and secondary.

[17:26]

Now, if I had a flip chart here, I would kind of show you so you can get a visual picture of it. But I think my description is clear enough. Just an anecdote now. Some years ago, many years ago actually, I was teaching in München. I arrived and the people met me and they said, let's go see the Dalai Lama. He's in town speaking to a large group of Protestant young people. There was some gathering in a... former Olympic stadium or something.

[18:34]

So I said, oh, sure, why not go? That's fine. So they met me at the airport or some place. Okay. And I know His Holiness pretty well. And when he first visited the United States, he stayed at my temple at the time, Green Gulch, for about a week and a half. And so, you know, he was there. And he's a little bit like a chipmunk as well as a monk. A chipmunk is one of these little, like a squirrel, but not a squirrel. Anyway, so he's sitting up with these thousands of people, and he's kind of scratching his head. And in those days, it wasn't a fashion to shave your head, so he noticed my shaved head, and he waved to me.

[19:37]

And then he gave a talk. which had virtually no content. He said, we all want to be happy. Don't we all want to be happy? Don't you want to all be happy? I mean, that's all he said, versions of we all want to be happy. And this is a comment for his big public talks, if he doesn't know. I should try it. I don't have to tell you about all the things. Don't you all want to be happy? Yeah, let's sit some more. Okay. And the other speaker was Weizsäcker. The physicist, the Nobel laureate physicist. And he gave a very intelligent talk about all kinds of things. And it was interesting.

[20:43]

But it was entirely in borrowed consciousness. And His Holiness was really only speaking out of immediate consciousness. From the situation, from the atmosphere in the room. And afterwards all of these thousands of protestant young people We're extremely happy. It was like after a big peace march. Everybody was singing on the subway. Some grouchy old Bavarians were kind of like... But it was... Oh, you don't have to try that. But... It's a city or a kind of charisma in Christianity, a kind of special power to be able to do this.

[21:49]

And when I'm here, I'm trying to speak from, as I said earlier, a kind of immediate consciousness or a kind of mutual body we have. So if you notice the difference you can also begin to feel even when you're thinking about something to find it to find if it's nourishing you feel nourished by what you're doing and saying let's say you're taking a walk in the city at lunchtime or something or you're going upstairs in a building try to walk along or walk up the stairs in a way that you feel nourished If you start having a busy mind, you don't feel nourished. And there's a certain pace. Each situation, time of day, atmosphere, weather, asks a certain pace of us.

[23:03]

And if you can find that pace, you'll find more feeling of being nourished by it. the situation itself. So if you practice that way, you're finding in your situation the mind which is not busy. Now this is, I can say all these words. But it really means nothing unless you start exploring your own mind. The mind that wakes up in the morning, the mind that goes to sleep at night. Feeling the physical shift when you go into sleep, or physical shift. When you wake up. Okay, next. As you described union. Could you speak in Hungarian first? Yeah. As you described the union, it seemed that he wasn't really busy, he was beyond this busyness, being busy.

[24:28]

Yeah. I don't mind you, by the way, you're speaking English as well as Hungarian. It's just that I can feel you more in Hungarian than in English. And also everybody can hear you in Hungarian. Well, it's true and not true. Yes, he had the basic situation that we Westerners probably don't have. Of a kind of sense of the world as a single interdependent continuum. The sense of the world as a single interdependent continuum. Okay. But it's still a pulse. A pulse like your heartbeat is a pulse.

[25:46]

So there's a pulse of being more, let's say, to use the terms I've suggested, to use the terms I've suggested, there's a pulse of being in immediate consciousness, and then more in borrowed consciousness, and so forth. So, it's quite possible that Daowu caught him a little distracted. As the koan says he saw a seam and he took so he said oh you look kind of busy to me so Dao Yunyan at that moment immediately went into his spine and into his breath, let's imagine.

[26:50]

Located himself in his body and mind. And... said, well, you should know there's one who's not busy. And we can assume that he was also showing to Dawu that the mind of one who's not busy. So, but he opened himself up to a kind of brotherly attack. By saying the words, well, there's one who's busy and there's one who's not busy. So then Dawu had this opening. Ah, then there's a double moon. And Tao says, Yunyan says, is this a double moon?

[28:06]

Another translation has, what moon do you call this? So nobody is in one state of mind all the time, it's a kind of pulse. And please, you know, I'm saying this Yunyan being Chinese was in a culture that has evolved in really deep and profound ways through the introduction of Buddhism. But, so you may think, oh, we're not Chinese and, you know, we're not Asian and... But in some ways we have more of an opportunity to practice than Asian people.

[29:07]

Because it's so... much part of their culture, they don't see it as practice. And part of certainly enlightenment experiences is when you have one state of mind which you kind of really stick to, if you're too smart and don't stick to a state of mind because you can see into it already in some ways you're less likely to experience enlightenment because it's sticking to a mind and suddenly seeing it different that gives you the enlightenment. It's hailing. Isn't that little ice? Yeah, it's here. This is supposed to be summer. What is happening in Hungary? This happens at Crestown too. We get sometimes big hail like this in the summer.

[30:10]

Can you hear me back there? More or less. You can hail me. Hail means to holler or to... A different spelling. A different spelling. Somebody else?

[32:03]

Yeah, there are people who have a very difficult time to combine these two or three kinds of consciousness. In my practice there is a point of preference to stay on each of them. Sometimes I prefer the intermediate mind, sometimes I absolutely prefer the board. That's okay. Buddhism doesn't work if it's a rule system.

[33:16]

In other words, it's better to not be in borrowed consciousness, and so when I'm in borrowed consciousness, I should get rid of it. If we have some attitude like that. We may feel that way. And you can practice that way. But it's not the style of Zen practice, the fundamental style of Zen practice. The fundamental style is to notice, oh. Yeah. I'm in borrowed consciousness. I really like this. It's fun. But you've noticed that you're in borrowed consciousness. And why did you notice it? Maybe noticing it is a kind of signal that something else wants to be noticed.

[34:20]

So you have, I mean, basically in practice, this is my strong feeling. You have to accept whatever it's there. But after a while, if you know and say that you are familiar with the different feel of borrowed, immediate and secondary they can begin to be part of your vocabulary. And one of the emphases is in mature Zen practice is spontaneity. And you can't be spontaneous unless you trust. And you can't trust if you're always correcting yourself. So it's some kind of craft. It's a kind of art in which you begin to have a feel for

[35:22]

all of these minds at once, and you can feel your movement within them. And eventually, if you're lucky, the more fundamental mind of a kind of the one who is not busy, begins to be present all the time. Another phrase I suggest to people sometimes is just in English. I have no idea how it works in Hungarian. Just now is enough. I mean, just now is sometimes not enough. If you're hungry or you've got to go to the toilet, just now is not enough. But if there's no food and no toilet, just now has to be enough.

[36:41]

So, just now is a fact of there is no choice, but just now is enough. No. Okay, but you may say, one corner of your mind says, yeah, but I better get lunch soon. But until you can get lunch, or whatever, you just still fundamentally feel just now is enough. So you need to incubate this kind of feeling. That the first relationship to anything in Buddhism is acceptance. And you can practice it. Like at Crestone, there's We're in the mountains.

[37:45]

At 4,000, 2,500 meters, about. And the mountain behind us is 4,600 meters, or something like that. And until recent years, the nearest grocery store was 100 kilometers away. And there's no movie theaters anywhere. So if somebody comes up to me and says, Roshi, let's go to the movies. I always say yes. My first reaction is to accept. Yes? Okay, let's go to the movies. But then I say, oh, we can't go to the movies? There's no movie theater. So my second reaction is no. I can't go. But my practice is yes or welcome or acceptance.

[38:53]

For an initial state of mind. Okay. And you can have an initial state of mind of acceptance in every situation. And then what to do? Okay. So you want to practice with this initial state of mind. Which is also the mind of appearance. Now, if we go back to don't invite your thoughts to tea. if we go back to don't invite your thoughts to tea another thing you're discovering through that practice in not engaging with your thoughts but just letting them come and go you're beginning to notice the dynamic of appearance some thought appears

[40:03]

So you're beginning to notice appearance, spontaneous appearance. And what spontaneously appears may be something you don't want to think about. It's horrible and somebody really humiliated you or something. And you can cut it off if you want. But in Zazen it's the more basic approach is to let it appear, but discover how not to get caught in it. the practice of allowing things to appear and accepting them is also basic to Zen practice. And that is involved with trust and not trust and acceptance and And you, in ordinary matters, like somebody asks you to go to the movies, you try to practice it.

[41:32]

Or you're about to, somebody asks you to help with the dishes. And you, maybe you can't do it because, but you say, oh yes, but you know, I really can't just now. But you're not just being polite or trying to get out of it. You're actually feeling, yes, I'm willing to do it. You can also, if you go to the hospital, to see somebody who's maybe dying of cancer. Or old age. Yeah. I'm getting there myself. Come and visit me in the hospital. I'll probably be in the Zendo, but not near. You really are willing to be in their place. You feel, if I could have cancer instead of you, I'd do it. We say, to be willing to die and yet gladly remain alive.

[42:39]

So part of practice, Jesus was also a person who could die. The Buddha was a person who could die. And so to become willing To accept dying and to be willing to die is a very fundamental state of mind. And if you can cultivate a mind that's, I'm willing to die. for years I practiced every night when I went to sleep I was willing to never wake up and you know when you're 20 or 30 it's harder to get into the feel of it but you can actually Just relax so much.

[43:56]

If I don't wake up, it's fine. And yet if I'm alive, it's fine. You can actually practice it. It's useful on each exhale. On each exhale, just feel like I'm going to disappear. And then, oh, a breath comes in. There will be a time when a breath won't come in. You'll say, goodbye. Goodbye. But a breath comes in. How wonderful. So you use every opportunity, each breath, to practice these fundamental views. And if on each exhale you can disappear, you're much more likely to discover the one who's not busy.

[44:58]

Or even the one who's already dead. Oh, I came back to life. You really have to bring These basic views of practice into your every moment. I mean, depending on how committed you are to this practice. Okay, someone else? Thank you for those of you who sent something. But I'm ready to thank new people too. Can you say something more about intention? You mentioned it earlier. Okay, I'll use this to speak about breath. And then we'll take a break. Okay. Attention and intention are the most basic and powerful tools you have.

[46:17]

And a wrong intention can kill you, can make you sick, etc. And many people have psychological problems in their life because They're committed to an intention which came from their parents or some kind of desire or ambition. And they force this intention on themselves. And it really, it's very hard on the mind and body. So Sukhiri, she used to say, discover your innermost request. And one of the things you're trying to do when you practice is to find a kind of ease. To see if you can really be at ease in your practice. You can't be willing to to not wake up in the morning if you're not at ease.

[47:40]

So in zazen you're trying to discover an ease, move toward an ease. And to notice when you're not at ease. And to notice this kind of like, sort of two kind of things moving. Not at ease, at ease, more at ease, less at ease, etc. Okay. So, and the other thing is you're trying to notice what really do I want to do.

[48:43]

What actually do I find satisfying? Yeah. And if you have to force some other kind of life on yourself, a job you kind of hate, or you feel dishonest, or something like that, it's much better to know you hate it. than to pretend you love it. And to feel, this is not really what I want to do, but I have to do it to support my family or something. This is the idea in the Eightfold Path of Right Livelihood. Can you If you have a job which you don't feel good about, can you do it in a way that you do feel okay about it?

[49:48]

Can you emphasize it as just a way of being with other people? Or whatever. But you're trying to discover your inmost request. And to notice, like, is it, I want to stay alive. I mean, that's our most basic request, I tell my daughter, your first job is to stay alive. There's a lot of, and then there's questions of how you stay alive. But first of all, you try to stay alive, you know, try not to have bicycle accidents and so forth. If you look at yourself, you may find in a very deep sense in Zazen, you're ambivalent about staying alive. You've made a decision to stay alive, but only if you're only under certain conditions.

[51:00]

Or you feel, I don't deserve to be alive. Well, you better know that if your life is going to evolve. Okay. So the idea of the Eightfold Path is to bring your views and intentions together with something you can fully be without reservation agreed to. So I'm speaking about intent. Intention. Just discovering your intention is a lifetime's work. Or maybe work's not the right word. A lifetime intention. Now, the practice, I mean, the other fundamental tool of Buddhist practice is attention.

[52:17]

And attention to attention itself. Okay. So you're bringing attention to attention. Everyone brings attention to their job, their sport, or whatever. But Buddhists bring attention to attention. So now let me speak about breath, because if I can get this across to you, it's worth at least this day. So you form an intent to bring attention You have an intention to bring attention to your breath.

[53:18]

You make that your primary intention in life. Among all the other things I said to be your primary intention. They're all interrelated. All these things I'm saying about are different versions of the same thing. Okay. This is, you know, the word spirit and psyche and soul and so forth are all related to the word breath. In most, all the languages I know in the world, breath is... is... identified with life itself in its most fundamental. Okay. Now, breath you bring attention to is different than breath you don't bring attention to.

[54:23]

Different kind of breath. I noticed quite a few of you are involved with special breathing practice called smoking. It's definitely a breathing practice. Not very good for you, but... It's a breathing practice which has an addictive element. And you can dose yourself very precisely with just the number of puffs you want. I'm giving you a hard time, I'm sorry. But if you're a practitioner, it's definitely better not to smoke. And it's definitely better to be able to switch the addiction and satisfy that addiction in another way. But that's too hard for most people. I'm just teasing you. I'm just teasing you. A lot of Zen teachers in Japan smoke.

[55:37]

And drink. And do a lot of other things. But anyway. So. All right. Now, what's interesting about bringing attention to the breath is you can all do it for a A few breaths. But mostly after a few breaths, particularly in ordinary circumstances, your mind goes back to your thinking. So the question is, Why is something that's so easy to do for a short time so difficult to do for a long time? It's not really because our thoughts are so interesting.

[56:40]

Even the most boring thoughts are more satisfying than bringing attention to your breath. So why are even boring thoughts about nothing so damned interesting? Well, if you see that many of your thoughts are self-referential thinking. Most of us like ourself better than we like our mind. A bodhisattva likes his or her mind more than his or herself. To feel the splendor and poetry of mind itself, it takes some time before you feel that, but it's far more engaging than thoughts and self. Okay.

[57:51]

But there's even, I think, a more basic reason we go back to our thinking. And that's because we establish the continuity of self, the continuity of self in our thinking. I mean, this gets into the whole idea of the function of self, which has been implied in what I've been saying already, that we have to establish Separation. And your immune system establishes separation, what belongs to this body and what doesn't belong to this body. So the immune system is a kind of self. establishing separation. Self also establishes connectedness.

[58:54]

And we can't function in the world without establishing connectedness and separation. And we also can't function in the world unless we establish a continuity from moment to moment. If at this moment you forgot who you were a moment ago, you'd be in deep doo-doo. And in some drug experiences you can be like that. The street looked like this a few minutes ago, but now it looks like that. I don't know, where am I? Okay. We mostly establish continuity in our thinking. And to maintain that continuity, we keep going back to our breath. Back to our thinking.

[59:57]

But if you keep trying, if you have an intent, an unshakable intent to bring attention to the breath. And the important thing here is not to strengthen the attention. But to strengthen the intent. And let the intent do the work. It's the intent which functions at nighttime, in sleeping mind, behind conscious mind, and so forth. Okay. So, at each moment, there's millions of things happening. Ten thousand. And intent... can be part of it. Consciousness isn't subtle enough to be part of it. A mind rooted in intent is deeper than consciousness.

[60:59]

So you have an intent and you really strengthen that intent. And you let the intent do the work. And trust when it brings attention to the breath. And if you have an intent to bring attention to the breath, and you hold and stay with that intent, I would guarantee you within two years, it seems like a long time to you, but to me it's... It's not very long. And it will transform your life. And you've got habits of 30 years or 20 years or 40 years. The fact that in a couple years you can make a change that cuts through the accumulation of decades, this is like magic.

[62:12]

So after a while, attention begins to stay with the breath more. Well, and then it goes back to the thinking. And then it easily comes back to the breath. And then it starts resting in the breath. And at some point, like a big rubber band, a gummy band, Let's form a group called the Gumi Band. It would be a big hit. The rubber band attaching your sense of continuity to thinking just comes loose. And you can feel it. And suddenly you're establishing your continuity in your breath, and your body, and phenomenal. So the fear of losing your sense of continuity gets re-established in a much more fundamental way.

[63:43]

And like right now, what is speaking? The breath is speaking. And I have attention to the breath in speaking Not so much to the words. So even in speaking, I have attention to the breath. And when we take a break in a moment, feel attention to the breath as you go down the stairs and so forth. And yeah. If you establish the continuity of self... That's how I'm going to look at it. But in the breath and the body and phenomena, you've made a huge psychological transformation in your life.

[64:49]

You may still have psychological problems, but they'll be different. And they'll be more accessible. And more something you can do something with. So I'm sorry to talk so much. But you know, I'm starting to miss you already. I have to leave today, go somewhere else. And I'm getting attached. And I'm accepting that I'm attached. Yeah. I wish I could be here more often. I like the feel of being here with I like the feeling that I am here with you and with Myokin Roshi. And I feel that I am speaking in the field that Myokin Roshi and you have all established. And your field is being established here in this location.

[65:55]

And I'm getting addicted. No, no, I mean attached. So let's have a moment of, I hit the bell, just beginning and ending.

[66:00]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_73.22