In one of your last talks, you mentioned the difference between bringing attention to your breath and finding your breath in the situation. And you characterized the second one as a deeper. or more refined. You know, you didn't use to work with fire. You used to work deeper. But I guess everyone has his own version of bringing attention to the breath. But could you say a little bit more about finding the breath in the situation? And maybe your question is, why did I say it's deeper? Why did I compare them? Yeah, why the compromise? Well, I think that the image... Oh, George Spitta.

[01:07]

In one of the last lectures, Roshi made the distinction between bringing attention to the breathing and finding the breathing in a situation. He characterized the second as deeper. I understand. You know, I might say that the more essential, I don't know why, I have to find some words, so let's say, bringing attention to the breath continuously

[02:34]

or finding continuity in the breath continuously, as we find attention in our posture continuously, is a, as a teaching, is more likely to bring us from our usual habits of mind psyche, into finding our continuity from within each moment, from each moment. in our, as I say, breath, body and phenomena.

[03:41]

Now that transition is I would say, you know, the basis of adept practice. And it's a psychological transformation. You're in a different world when that's the case. Okay. But if... Okay. On the whole, Mahayana Buddhism, in the shift from... And I've been thinking about this partly because of Till and my brief conversation about this new figure. The shift is, you know, there's many things we could say about the shift. But the shift is simply from wanting to be like the Buddha to wanting or willing or imagining to be the Buddha.

[04:47]

So if we're going to be the Buddha, not just be like the Buddha, then the Buddha can no longer be the historical Buddha. then the concept of the Buddha has to become something we can be. Okay, so that... We'd need quite a bit of time to go into it. It would be a lot of fun. That really... Basically, that produces a worldview and a Buddha that's inconceivable. Grundlegend produziert das eine Weltsicht und eine Sicht des Buddha, die... Unvorstellbar.

[06:10]

And, okay, so that means the Buddha and the whole world and enlightenment and merit are all identified. Okay. As a result, Mahayana Buddhism doesn't deal much in theories, as I said yesterday. But in images. And they make use of the simple thing, which I'm sorry I'm going on so long, but here we go. The image I used of the mind and thoughts as billboards and so forth. Such an image can rest in my mind. In my intentional mind, not my discursive mind.

[07:17]

So such an image can not only arise from my experience in meditation, it can in my activity be a kind of signpost that brings me back to that mind. So, again, the Avanthamsaka Sutra, as I mentioned in speaking about Thiel, is really nothing but a series of images. Instead of being a philosopher, you enter into an image. Okay. So if I'm really teaching Mahayana Buddhism and practicing it well, do you really need to know all this?

[08:47]

I have to be careful about creating an image which isn't consistent with the worldview of the Mahayana. So the image of the mind being continuously on the breath, as if there was such a thing as continuity, is a false image from the point of view of Buddhism. Because there's no continuity. There's only moment by moment flashing. So the image of finding your breath in each moment is more true to how the world as we find it in the Mahayana actually exists. So the image of the continuity of the breath is a useful pedagogical image.

[09:59]

But once you've used it, you discard it. But the finding of your energy or your breath in each moment, this image reaches more and more deeply into your experience. Okay. Why do I tell you these things? I mean, the reason I ask the question Yes, you don't really need to know this to practice. It's troublesome. But I also feel there's an honesty in our thinking. We know when things compute and when they don't compute.

[11:21]

Particularly if we're practicing. So I think these, what I just presented was a kind of image. And it can lay and wait for you when you need it. So at some point, if we ask her, this is for me, I ask myself questions. Why is this the case? And if I have an image of me, of practice or the world which no longer quite fits my experience. It hinders my experience and I try to go around it or something. But if the image I have of the world and practice has accuracy, then I go through. But the picture I have of the world and if the practice is accurate, then I go through it.

[12:30]

because I was looking at the Avatamsaka Sutra this morning. And not only is it one chapter after another of images, each chapter has begun by a whole series of questions. And the questions then are answered in an image. My question relates to what Dieter was asking. I was also trying to figure out the difference between putting attention to the breath and finding it in each moment. My experience was that it's always combined with a little pressure inside myself.

[13:35]

What's combined with a little pressure? When I say I'm giving attention to my breath, because it seems for me that it's coming more from the thinking, that I remember the sentence and then I go from the concept to my breath. finding the breath in each moment. It's more like that I'm coming from another side, which is not really clear where it's from, but it's more from the experience itself. This morning during satsang I was listening or putting my attention to the hearing. I was hearing a bird, and then I really started to hear it, or started to hear it more like it really was. And I was wondering whether it was the same.

[14:39]

First it was more a concept of now I'm hearing, I'm listening, and then I just listened. Deutsch bitte. I also experienced this difference between focusing on the breath and finding the breath in every moment According to my experience, when I direct my attention to the breath, then it is connected with a little inner pressure, because I go more from thinking and then direct my attention to the breath, and when I find it in the moment itself, Yes, then I come from another point of view and it becomes more and more like a real experience. And this morning when I was 17, I did the same thing with my ears and then I first heard a bird and then I learned that I was not right again, that I was coming from this side of thinking.

[15:47]

Yeah, that's right. A larger question is I don't really know where I locate myself. I find that my usual location is in the thinking. This is where I put the world together. I'm just teasing. We all do that. Yeah, and these other places I can't really... It's inconceivable. Do you want to say the last part in German? Or did you say it already? No. Yes, exactly.

[17:01]

And the question that still stands behind it is that I ask myself where I even localize myself, that I am in the mind or that I am normally not in the thinking. Okay, I think it's enough for me to say that again, you have the ability to notice that you're hearing the bird differently. that listening carefully shifts from someone who's listening to being in the midst of a sound body, in which things are heard in great particularity. As I often put it, you're hearing, hearing itself.

[18:14]

And when that happens, you actually are not coming from the usual self-observer. So then you can, again, notice Where do you find this location that's hearing? What is this location that's hearing? And if you're open to that, your worldview changes. And if you're practicing, usually your worldview can change. in how the world is put together. In ways that are not threatening. You don't need a big calamity in your life to make it happen.

[19:15]

We've converted them next door. I'm not just there hitting a drum there in my own lecture. The sun takes over our sounds. Okay. I'll be over in just a little while. Yeah. Okay. Sometimes in daily situations, particularly in the job, there are situations where we have to think about so many things, it's so thinking like an active process. And sometimes it's kind of that thing that's

[20:17]

It's enough to sing 24 hours a day, so you can just, from the volume of these things which you have to go through, it's kind of really strange with you. Particularly all day just engage in thinking, thinking, thinking. At least after Creston it's kind of strange. After what? After Creston, you know. After I've been in Creston. Oh, after you've been in Creston it seems kind of crazy. It seems very crazy. And just trying to find a way to deal with it. I mean, it's not a normal situation currently, but... So as I said, sometimes it comes up that some projects or something, you have to do this. And just trying to find the answer, what is this thinking? What is this process?

[21:23]

Because sometimes you just... You spend a couple of hours to think of something and then you just a few seconds give up and then something comes up with like a conclusion or you find a solution. But also, as I said, sometimes it's kind of really frustrating because you know that there are so many things you have to go through and you just no time or just the rich time you can spend all day and night just thinking about these old things. And I would like to stop to say, laugh or something, but kind of, then I say, okay, but who will do this job? I mean, you have to go through it and some kind of... really difficult situations. That's my main question.

[22:25]

What is this process of thinking? And what is the best attitude towards such situations? German, please. Sometimes in work, especially, there are situations where you You have to think a lot, you have to be really active, not just spend time thinking, but really think about the things that you have to deal with. And sometimes it's a lot that you can spend the whole time just thinking about the work. Yes. a little bit lost, at least for a while, so there are definitely a lot of things that I don't understand.

[23:31]

And my question is, what is this process of active thinking? Because sometimes it happens that you spend hours thinking about one thing, but then and then the decision is made or the solution comes out of nowhere. And that is the right attitude, the right attitude, the right attitude in such situations. Your job requires you to think. That's your job, to think about things and work things out, right? And sometimes you find it energetically depleting or something. At the end of the day, you're kind of wiped out.

[24:33]

Is that the case? And during it you... It's also this thought that you see how many things you have to do and it's kind of... it produces huge pressure. I mean... Sometimes I just say, OK, I have only these twelve hours a day. I don't want to do more, but it's kind of... Yeah, I understand. There's an expression, if you want to get something done, give it to a busy person. That's true, usually. But at the same time, it's good to be able to just concentrate on what you're doing and not have any thought of what you have to do.

[26:04]

And I think you just keep trying to practice that. I think it also helps to see if you can really feel your body in your thinking, if you can think with your body as well as your mind. And you can do that as simply as being aware of your posture while you're doing things. It's also helpful, I used to find when I worked in offices, to sometimes just bring my attention to my elbow, say.

[27:10]

Just the elbow on the desk. And go out of the thinking altogether. Go away from the thinking altogether. Of course, the more that thinking is just a tool for you, that also makes it easier. If your thinking also carries the baggage of identity, personality, obligations... It's harder to think clearly actually. And I think it's helpful to do simple things like you look up at the sky Out the window occasionally. Identify your mind with the sky. That's enough maybe. But try some things like that. And then the more your body is in your thinking also, later ideas will just pop out from nowhere because your body is thinking when the mind's at rest.

[28:34]

Ordinary thinking mind, anyway, is at rest. Andreas? The image, the field of the mind, to see that as a box that you open, that's very helpful to me. And I tried to do that, and then I had the feeling this is an open field, but next to that open field there's already a bigger box. And like that it's going on. Mm-hmm. And I also had the feeling when it goes from one box field to the other one, then for a moment the observer disappears.

[29:59]

And then there's again an observer. Yes. And my question is, these different observers, do they taste different? Do they taste different? Are you planning a romance? I have the feeling they somehow taste in a different way, these different observers. Yeah, I'd probably use the word they feel differently. There's a different feel to them. That's correct. And the... Again, if we go back to the... Zen Mahayana thinking, the different feel of an observer can be opened up into a bodhisattva.

[31:10]

That can be opened up into a bodhisattva. For example, the sound body can also be a bodhisattva called all-encompassing sound body or something like that. And I won't go into what that's about. But just say it's coming up because I've been thinking, noticing this figure that you're all making. Some of you are making so beautiful. Where do these images come from and what do they mean to us? Thank you.

[32:11]

And then the question pops up, is there an image about emptiness? You mean, is there an image that allows you to bring the feel of emptiness into your Mein Gefühl war, es kommt immer wieder in die Box, immer wieder, da ist immer was drumherum. My feeling is...

[32:49]

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