And the idea of teaching Zazen while you're sitting in theater seats above the... And the idea of teaching Zazen while you're sitting in theater seats above the... But maybe this is a good example of West and East coming together. It's possible to do Zazen in a chair, but not so easy, actually. So since you're sitting in a chair, I'll say something about it. The most important part of your posture is your back. And again, since you're sitting in a chair and we have

[01:04]

and an hour has been assigned to us. I don't think we can sit so long, so I'll try to use this opportunity to describe Zazen practice to you in some kind of detail. I don't think we can sit so long, so I'll try to use this opportunity to describe Zazen practice to you in some kind of detail. So sitting in a chair, you can sit with your back straight. Now generally, If you're practicing with others, the posture is not really explained to you.

[02:24]

You just see people sitting and you find out how to sit. If you practice with others, the posture is not really explained to you. You just see people sitting and you find out how to sit. But since I'm assuming for at least some of you, zazen posture and practice is new, I'll give you some reason. Now if you sit on a chair, your back should be as straight as possible. If you need to lean back, it's okay, but better not to lean back against the chair. Thank you. What we're trying to do when we sit down is to create the possibility to be physically and mentally still.

[03:44]

And one of the problems with sitting in a chair is that it requires your muscles to support you. That's why we lie down to sleep. Because to stay upright, your consciousness needs to support you. And in zazen you want your consciousness kind of recede. And if most of your consciousness recedes while you're sitting zazen... And most of your consciousness recedes while you're sitting zazen...

[04:53]

But if you could use to the structure of this posture, your consciousness can receive, you can still maintain your path. So anyway, as you get used to cross-legged posture, you more and more can sit without musculature effort, without the effort of your muscle. Now, this is also pretty good posture. Because it's quite easy for your back to be straight. And, well, it's easy for your back to be straight, except that you still need muscles to keep your body upright.

[06:14]

Also I can illustrate something in posture, which is that in Zazen posture we want our arms along the side of our chest. So you want your hands in some posture where you're pulling yourself forward here. Now another reason we sit with our back straight is that it is the main highway of our zazen energy.

[07:30]

I say I modify the word energy because this energy I'm talking about is not measurable in some scientific terms. But it's an energy that is only Well, in one way it's on the other side of your breath. Not just your breath, but you often discover it through your breath. And it's not your body in the usual way you notice your body. But it's in It feels like the most essential quality of your body when you begin to experience your body that way.

[08:55]

And part of the reason for daven is to make that experience of your body and energy spiritual and possible. So, your legs. Now, as I showed you before, you can sit in a posture called César, if anybody didn't meet you. And one reason that's better than sitting in a chair is that it concentrates your heat in your body. And heat and consciousness and energy are all closely connected. And in one sense, it's a...

[10:21]

It's a simple kind of heat, like your body feels warmer. And it's the difference between a cold body, a dead body, and a live, conscious body. But it's also a kind of heat, like if he was cold, I might be able to put my hand there, not even touching him and warm his shoulder, even though there'd be no measurable heat. But it's also a kind of heat, like if he was cold, I might be able to put my hand there, not even touching him and warm his shoulder, even though there'd be no measurable heat. The kind of energy some of the energy healers use. So your experience of that energy is increased, and your concentration in meditation is increased if your body is folded together.

[11:41]

Das bedeutet nicht, dass die Energie nicht da ist, wenn ihr nicht so sitzt, aber eure Erfahrung davon, dass ihr das erfahrt, ist wesentlich einfacher und leichter, wenn ihr auf diese Weise sitzt. And of course, it contributes to your ability to be still in heightened awareness. Now, if you understand this notation posture, the way I'm explaining it, Also allows you to bring this meditation posture into all your postures, whatever way you are standing, walking, lying.

[12:52]

Now, the other reason for your legs is this is, first of all, as I just said, this is the way your full lotus is the way your body heat and general energy is concentrated. But also, this posture gives your body a structure which tends to support itself. So you can relax more deeply and don't have to make an effort. Okay. Now what I've described so far is primarily outer posture. And outer posture allows you to discover your interior space, your interior posture.

[14:24]

And now, the two other points of outer posture, which is generally we, in Zen practice, we put our hands together. Now, I think for, put your hands together any way you want. But there are actually lots of different ways to do it, but I'm going to put your hands together. Put your hands together. And if for some reason you like to sit this way, sit so that you don't hold your shoulder. Now, Let me say, this posture belongs to you. You can do it any way you want.

[15:25]

And you can do it any way you like. And even if I describe to you an ideal posture, within that, you find your own posture. So Zen practice is always a kind of communication between the ideal posture which you can feel and your actual posture which you accept. That dialogue between sitting you and sitting Buddha is essential for Zen practice. So you're not sitting to become a Buddha.

[16:31]

You're discovering that sitting Buddha is present and sitting you is present. This posture makes a kind of inner window that allows you to begin to sense sitting Buddha is present when you sit. Of course, in all your postures, this quality we call Buddha or Buddha nature is present. But we discovered most directly that the shortcut for most people that . They're good.

[17:32]

And you're You've had a lifting feeling through your back. So, a little bit like if you try to lift your fingers there, that happens. So you lift up through your back, but not curving your back in too much. And then that same lifting feeling continues through the back of your neck. And that lifting feeling to the back of your neck as if you were being pulled up from the back of your head.

[18:36]

Pulled your chin a little bit. And then your tongue goes to the roof of your mouth. I can't keep it there or I can't talk. Right. And that your tongue there inhibits the formation of saliva when you're the way you... Anyway, it inhibits the formation of saliva. And it also completes one of the main circuits of energy that move through your body. Now, I should say that Zazen posture is very closely related actually to acupuncture.

[19:46]

When your zazen posture becomes refined, you can discover acupuncture points from inside. It's often the place you want to scratch. So although you just get the general feeling of darshan posture and do it the best you can, At the same time, as your practice becomes more refined, you discover small details make a big difference. For example, whether you're currently touching the roof of your mouth. You have this lifting feeling through your back, through the back of your neck, through the top of your head.

[21:09]

Then you have a melting feeling that comes down from your head to your body. And that general feeling of melting down through your body is quite essential to Zen practice. Because within the exactness of the outer and inner postures, you want a deep feeling of relaxation. You know, when you say in English that you go to sleep, in German, you go into sleep, or If you spent all night lying in bed without going to sleep, you don't feel rested in the morning.

[22:22]

But if even for a few hours you go to sleep, you feel rested. So what's the difference between lying still in your bed for a few hours and going to sleep for a few hours? Something very similar to that is also the difference between doing zazen and just sitting in your chair. So this feeling of relaxation is part of going into zazen. But since you have paid attention to your outer posture, you don't fall asleep, you go into zazen, not into sleep. And since you have paid attention to your external attitude, you don't fall asleep, but you go into a trance.

[23:47]

No, that's your attitude. So consciousness recedes in zazen, but awareness, a wider feeling than consciousness, comes up. Now developing that awareness wider feeling, the main practice of inner posture is your breath. Why don't you sit as well as you can right now? In whatever outer posture in your seat there you're capable of.

[24:53]

And I'll say something about your breath. Now let me give you one... Now, breath is an inner-outer posture. And it's the basic function of our body that connects the inside and outside. And another such function are your eyes and your ears. Now the outer posture of your eyes is to have your eyelid not entirely shut, a little open, but you're not looking in. So you're looking out a little bit like that, about your height away from the floor.

[25:59]

And at that point, you're not really looking at anything, just some light comes in. Now, sasen posture is not waking consciousness. It's not sleeping consciousness. Now, your eyes are part of closed, they're sleeping consciousness, or non-consciousness, and open, they're waking consciousness. That zazen is not waking your sleeping mind, so your eyes should be somewhere in between those two eye postures.

[27:06]

Now, at the outer posture of the eyes, The inner posture of the eye is to have the feeling of moving the location of yourself. If this makes any sense, I hope so. The location of yourself as seeing being from the front of your eyes to the back of your eyeballs. And the inner attitude of the seeing is that your feeling of locality, where you yourself are, that you take that, if it makes sense, from the front of your eyes, so to speak, back to the back of your eyes, to the back of your eyes. It's actually a physical sensation of being at the back of your eyeball.

[28:08]

Now your breath is coming through your nostrils. Unless you have a cold or some reason need to, it's better to breathe through your nose than your mouth. an experiment that you'd like with the difference between breathing through one nostril or the other. Pay attention, you'll see that actually during the day you shift back and forth between nostrils. And there's a different state of mind that goes, that's part of the shift from one nostril to the other.

[29:46]

I mention this because it's just something you might notice that can refine how you experience yourself. Am I making it difficult? No. Thank you. But just let your breathing come in naturally and out. So let your breath come in and out quite naturally. And after you've gotten yourself settled in Sazan posture, you bring your attention to your breath.

[30:57]

And the usual way to do that, and not just for beginners, is to counteract it. Und die übliche Art und Weise, das zu machen und nicht nur für Anfänger, das ist, eure Ausatemzüge zu zählen. From one to ten and then start with one again. How often is it not so easy to get past three before you start thinking?

[32:15]

But in the state of mind that can't count to ten, you'll learn many things. A child can count to ten, but a half Buddha can't. Don't criticize yourself for not being able to count to ten, count your breath to ten. You're discovering consciousness which in its fullness can't count to ten of now. You're discovering a less educated, less cultured part of yourself.

[33:16]

So usual waking consciousness, you're leaving behind, you're letting go of in the security of your outer thought. Sometimes you'll count to ten, and sometimes you'll just keep your mind, as much as possible, on your breath, with your breath. Let's sit a little while and see what happens. Why don't you sit in a posture that's comfortable for you?

[34:47]

And we're supposed to stop at 9 o'clock, I think, isn't that right? Isn't that right? So I'll say a couple of things before I just end, if we have three or four minutes. One of the things the Zen practices are doing is creating interior space. Now, I say interior space, to mean something that's not like private space. It's not sort of like, oh, I have my inner thoughts and no one knows what they are.

[36:12]

They may be more visible than you think, actually. With an emphasis on than you think. Can you say that in German? But interior space in our culture doesn't emphasize interior space much. So interior space is... the way you join the exterior world. Now, Zazen posture is also a posture that helps you locate and develop interior space. Also die Saasinhaltung ist auch dazu da, euch darin zu lokalisieren, also euren Ort darin zu finden und in diesem inneren Raum zu entwickeln.

[37:29]

Und es schafft auch die Haltung und Einstellung, wie man am meisten das Begegnen von inneren und äußerem Raum erleben kann. Now your breath is an important part of that. It's the main bridge from the exterior of your body to the interior of your body. And it's the main way you begin to experience interior and exterior space. You also use breath to bring breath inside your body, your awareness inside your body, and become intimate with the inside of your body.

[38:30]

First you use breath as a kind of flashlight to look at the inside of your body, your lungs, stomach, and the subtle feelings that are present in your body. And the more you become comfortable with doing that, you find it's not just your attention, it's the light looking at your stomach, say. Your stomach has its own consciousness. And you feel an interior consciousness begin to arise from inside. Sometimes when you, I'll just say this one thing, when you practice that and even occasionally during the day, it's actually quite good to contract your sphincter muscles.

[39:47]

This in zazen corrects your posture from inside. Just once during a period, that's all. Not even less than that. And once or twice during the day, help bring your energy together. So this interior and exterior space can be more alive. And again, your breath is how you bring this stillness that you find out through this posture. And this relaxation and the aliveness of your interior space to your daily life.

[41:00]

So breath is the main bridge to bring this meditation posture back to your breath. Or whenever you look in someone's eyes, you bring yourself back to your breath. Or every set of stairs, and this building has lots of them, are really secret monastery stairs. And you're by yourself for a moment going upstairs. Or downstairs. And you use the stairs to bring yourself into the pace of this phenomenal world and with your breath. So I invite you all to enjoy the stairs of this building within yourself and posture and breath. Thank you very much.

[42:11]

You end up.

[42:12]

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