In my recent travels, I broke a couple of toes. In two stupid but not easily avoidable accidents. And they're getting better, I guess. You can't exactly put your toe in a sling, you know. But it does interfere. It's hard to bow because my toe doesn't want to bend. So it's small things. It doesn't interfere much at all, but it kind of interferes too. Now, we're starting this practice month, or week, or however long you're going to be here. And I'm very grateful and pleased that you're here.

[01:05]

And I'm grateful that the kids can be here too. And I'm grateful that those of you who don't have kids put up with the kids. For we don't really know what we're doing here. Except we do know we're trying to make practice accessible, available to people. And whenever we do something like start this practice month or six weeks, I have sort of a momentary existential crisis. I wonder, what the heck am I doing asking you guys to come here and practice?

[02:35]

Of course, you also ask yourself. It's not just me. But I did help create this place where we can practice. And of course Dieter and you, Dieter and Frank and Marie-Louise and others are helping create and continue this place. And of course, it's not just the place. I mean, the practice itself is a... Yeah, a location in this world. So it's not just the place or the place, but practice is something like a place in the world.

[03:56]

And Catherine practicing for five years at Crestone. And then bringing this location of practice into her life in Frankfurt and then bringing it here this week. And Atmar in a similar way. And even Marlene and René trying to bring this location of practice into their family life somewhere up there by the North Sea. This location of practice that we enter by coming here into the practice and into the place, So anyway, I then ask myself, why am I supporting doing this?

[05:17]

Of course, because I like doing it. Yeah, but I don't always force all my likes on everyone else. So why am I doing this with you in this way? So let's get a general picture at first. Also versuchen wir erst einmal ein ganz allgemeines Bild zu bekommen. Also wir sind Kreaturen oder Tierchen der Kultur.

[06:19]

And we're creatures cultivated by, shaped by culture. Und wir sind eben Kreaturen, die auch durch Kultur geformt wurden. And Buddhism assumes, emphasizing nurture much more than nature. We don't have a term. It's not a political issue in Europe, I guess, in China. René, you have learned it. So nurture, right, this nourishment. Okay, sorry. Sorry, I made my own lecture. Yeah, that's fine. You want to continue?

[07:21]

I'll take a rest. Yeah, I mean, it's just in the West we assume instinctual drives, genetics, soul at conception and so forth. Also im Westen gehen wir aus von instinkthaften Treiben oder Tun, von Intuition, von Seele, ab der Seele schon bestehend seit Empfängnis und so weiter. or the, you know, sort of primary shape of us. But Buddhism assumes that we're, yeah, mostly shaped by the maternal and sometimes the paternal and cultural context.

[08:34]

If that wasn't the emphasis in Buddhism, enlightenment would not be possible or make any sense. Enlightenment assumes and the fact of it assumes or points out. Enlightenment assumes and the fact of it points out. But that we're deeply transformable. And part of the process of practice is to accept that, believe that, understand that. is that you accept that you believe in it and that you believe in it and believe in it.

[09:55]

If you don't fully accept that, that degree to which you don't fully accept it will prevent enlightenment experiences. If you don't fully believe in it, the degree to which you don't fully believe in it will also give you enlightenment. Yeah, if we assume that we're maybe like radios where you can change the station a little bit or tune it in better, but we can't transform the radio itself. Yes, you can tune in a German station or an American station or a Japanese station. But the radio remains the same. If you have that view, it's... Yeah, and you'll just think, oh, I'm here in a Japanese radio station for a week or two.

[10:59]

Mm-hmm. And again, let's, as Buddhism and contemporary anthropology and contemporary neurobiological science shows that we're deeply creatures of intersubjective relationships and culture. Yeah, even the structure of our brain, our limbic system, hormonal system, it's all influenced by culture.

[12:02]

Yes, the way we perceive, the way we think. If that's the case, how does practice have a chance? Now, trying to answer that question or respond to that is why I'm trying to find a mix between individual practice and monastic practice. And to understand that and to respond or to react to that is why I want to find a mixture between lay and monastic practice. The indispensable core The indispensable root of the development of self, personality, and so forth.

[13:16]

Yes, we could say something like the spatial... mental and physical unit. In time. In other words, we have some experience of being located in space, mentally and physically, And a location that has continuity over time. Through time. Now, why am I talking so abstractly or weirdly? Because monastic practice or this semi-monastic practice assumes we have to change or work with this mental, physical location that we experience.

[14:45]

Yeah, so whenever I have one of these existential crises, I go back to kind of like the beginning. What are we doing? How do we make sense of this? Yeah, what are we doing with each of our wonderful... mental and physical, spatial units. And I'm not using the word person or human being because that already assumes, carries culture with it. Of course, like you, wherever I am, shopping in a grocery store, sitting in a car,

[16:04]

Like you, wherever I am. Yeah, I see people. And I try not to think of them as people. I think, I try to change the words. I think there goes a power and a presence. It somehow manages to get through the day. It somehow manages to put one foot in front of the other. It's a miracle. If I think that's a person, then I think, well, that's kind of a dumb person or that's a pretty person. I don't want to think that way. Just the fact that they cross the street without getting hit by a car and push a baby carriage, I mean, this is a miracle.

[17:20]

Yeah, what power and presence, what allows this to happen? Okay, so here we are all together for a while. And the first step has to be somehow to change our habits. Now, we can't change our habits too radically or you all leave. So we have to change them a little bit here. Yeah, so how do we start? We start with a wake-up bell.

[18:31]

Now, sometimes I get up a little before this morning. I didn't hear the wake-up bell, but, you know, sometimes I get up a little before the wake-up bell. So I can do five or ten minutes of yoga so I'm able to sit as I get older. But I prefer to be awakened by the wake-up bell. Aber ich habe es lieber, wenn ich von der Aufweckglocke geweckt werde. It's not the same as an alarm clock. Das ist nicht dasselbe wie ein Wecker. It's an actual human being is out there, bling, bling, bling. Es ist nämlich ein echtes, tatsächliches, menschliches Wesen, das da draußen ist, bling, bling, bling. Traditionally, you run with some insistence, bling, bling, bling. So you're not ringing with your hand or your mind. You're letting the running of your body ring the bell.

[19:36]

You can ring the wake-up bell tomorrow morning. This is good. So you can feel the physicality of the ringing and the thump-thump of the feet and so forth. And luckily children, at least some children, usually learn to sleep through it. Maybe they hear it and say, oh, it's wonderful not to be an adult. The wake-up bell is the presence of a person. Another person.

[21:02]

Not just a school bell rung by a machine. And then we have the Han. And the Han again establishes a rhythm, a pace. And the effort of the person hitting the hand should be that each hit has clarity. Even down into the merging of the roll down. And then it comes back with the clarity of the first or second hit.

[22:03]

And then when the person, the doane, the person hitting the, the power and presence hitting the Han comes into the zendo. They should come in at the pace of the Han. Sorry, he's ringing the bell in the pace of the Han or he's entering the zendo? No, he's ringing the Han, hitting the Han, not the bell. Yes. And he comes in at the pace of the... Ah, Entschuldigung, falsch, völlig falsch. Also, wenn der Hahnmensch in den Sender kommt, dann soll... The Hahnmensch, yeah.

[23:05]

Dann soll der... The Hahnmensch? I want to go up to marry a Hahnmensch. So the Hahnmensch has no need to run or rush. Look, we have no place to go. We have nothing to do here. Take your time. Just walk in. Wir haben hier nichts zu tun, an keinen Ort zu gehen. Nimm dir die Zeit, herein zu kommen. You don't take a shortcut onto your cushion. Du nimmst nicht auch noch eine kleine Abkürzung auf dein Kissen. You just come to your cushion and bow and turn around and so forth. Du kommst also an dein Kissen, verbeugst dich, drehst dich herum und so weiter. Just like the jisha sometimes takes a shortcut up to the altar, but actually...

[24:08]

The jisha should leave the cushion just the way the doshi leaves the cushion. Bow at the back of your cushion, go around the cushion and up this side. And we're always in a dyadic relationship, a face-to-face, two-person relationship. So it's like as soon as I come in, you're the doer, and as soon as I bow, you bow. This is really to take us, excuse me for sounding ridiculous, this is to take us out of the left brain. We want this mental and physical spatial unit, meaning each of us,

[25:21]

To establish a right brain and not a left brain continuum. And it's been shown that the right brain has the most comprehensive and integrated map of the body. The left brain can comment on it, but it doesn't have the map. And it's that bodily feeling-based map in the right brain that we want to work with and practice. Now, if we're so shaped by culture, again, how can we free ourselves from culture?

[26:57]

Because our very brain and neurological system is shaped by culture. Because we continue to cultivate ourselves throughout our life. Because we shape ourselves. We continue to cultivate ourselves throughout our life. And there's an amazing fluidity and plasticity even to our neurobiological basis. Now, really, it is possible that during these days or weeks you're here, you will not return to the same person afterwards.

[28:27]

Meaning yourself, not you. You will not return to be the same radio afterwards. Now we have an expression in English, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Do you have the same expression in German? I know, but we understand it. Oh, yeah. It's not too hard to grasp. But we're not old dogs. We're power and presences which still have puppy-like qualities. So perhaps practice is speaking to the puppy in each of you.

[29:49]

I was surprised, you know, how Charlie, who's 15 years old, is still like a puppy, I mean a kitten. This morning she greeted Judita and I coming out of the Zendo. By lying on her back and sliding down the stairs head first. And completely accepting being tickled on the tummy. So I'm not suggesting we slide down the stairs backwards during these practice days. Some of you might like it, and Kai would be especially good at it, probably. I'll try it, but... Okay. Now, perhaps we could find our way into this by taking the words clarity, pace, rhythm, something like that.

[31:21]

And, yeah, let's say aliveness. And try to feel our way through the day. The kind of bodily pace that allows each thing to be done with clarity. and an effort to do each thing physically and mentally with clarity. It allows a kind of pace. Now, when we do kin hin in the morning between the periods of zazen, we're, of course, walking slowly.

[32:49]

And we're continuing the feeling of zazen in our walking. But we're also trying to discover the posture of standing. Now, I did speak about this. I should stop in a moment. But I did speak about this in the Johanneshof seminar a while ago. The teaching of the mindfulness of the four noble postures. Now we can ask ourselves the question, why does Buddhism bother to talk about the four postures and even call them noble?

[34:11]

It's such a simple idea, it's easy just to pass over it. But it's such a deep, deep recognition that you are going, each of us spends our entire life in one of these, all of these four postures. dass jeder von euch sein ganzes oder ihr ganzes Leben hindurch in einer oder allen diesen vier Körperhaltungen verbringen wird. Und diese machen einen Unterschied. Es ist unheimlich schwer, im Stehen einzuschlafen. Außer ihr seid ein Pferd. Or it's very hard to fall asleep sitting unless you're driving or doing zazen.

[35:20]

Real sleep is the posture of reclining. Okay, so again, isn't this so obvious? Why mention it? So for those of you who are new to this idea, let me say that you have to get a sense of the difference between, I'll use the two words, position and a posture. And the words work sort of okay in English. Position is, you know, let's say that this is a position. Yeah, and if I'm just sitting in a position, you know, sort of slouched down into the eye, there isn't much energy in it.

[36:41]

There isn't much aliveness in it. If I just say to myself, let's bring a little aliveness into this slouch, immediately I come into a much more upright feeling. So a What Buddhism means by a posture is a position that you can fill with energy and aliveness. So I'm giving you, suggesting these three words as part of our moment-by-moment continuity. That's why I present these three words to you in this continuity from moment to moment.

[37:59]

Clarity, peace and aliveness. And in qin hin, you're discovering the standing posture of aliveness. And you can fill with energy the lifting of the heel and bringing energy up into your body. die ihr mit Energie anfüllen könnt, wenn ihr eure Ferse hochhebt und dann mit Lebendigkeit anfüllen könnt. We could say that Zazen, of course Zazen is also defined the aliveness in your sitting. Natürlich können wir von Zazen auch sagen, dass deine Lebendigkeit in dieser sitzenden Haltung von Zazen ist. And we could say that one of the fruits and or aims of zazen, is just to have the pure experience of aliveness.

[39:01]

To be alive for no reason. Nothing to accomplish, nothing to do, nothing to be anxious about. Just a sheer or simple experience of being, of aliveness. And sometimes in zazen, when you enter into this simple aliveness, you may lose your body shape. You may be different sensations. you might be just a tube or you might be just a color and this way we are becoming free of being creatures cultivated by our culture

[40:26]

And the door to transformation is first of all experience. Buddhist practice is Experience, analysis and understanding of the obstacles of practice. The Buddhist teaching and practice is the analysis of how we exist, the experience of how we exist and understanding the obstacles to knowing how we exist. And that's what we're trying to enter into in these days and weeks of practice together.

[41:49]

To get the flavor of possibly A Buddha being among us. Or within us. Okay, thank you very much. Hör in unser Absicht und gleichermaßen wie es fehlt.

[42:42]

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