Hard to believe anything can be this beautiful. Okay, what I thought I might try to do today is to take a very basic, simple Buddhist practice and try to illustrate the depth of engagement with the practice that's expected. And a depth that's assumed in general in Zen and all Buddhist practice.

[01:07]

And I think it can give us a sense of how we can be created in the world. And the simple shift is from a world that's created to a world that's in the process of creation. So it's not just a simple shift in belief or in attitudes. This shift from a world which is assumed to be created to a world which is assumed to be in the midst of continuous creation makes a huge difference.

[02:25]

Now, if it's obviously, if we don't emphasize that the world is a created world which we've somehow been born into. And instead, because obviously some kind of creation is going on or has happened, So the shift is from the assumption that the world is created and that you exist in it,

[03:46]

Insofern geht es darum, von einer Welt, in der wir davon ausgehen, dass sie geschaffen wurde, hinzu, dass die Welt sich in einem fortwährenden Prozess des So you're born into the midst of a creative process. This means that there's no outside. Not only that there's no outside space from which a creation could occur, But there's no outside right here. There are only parts.

[05:00]

What does that mean, there are only parts? Well, although in the near, I hope near future we'll only have electric cars, but right now we think of a gasoline-powered engine. I hope that in the near future we'll only have electric cars, but if we now orient ourselves or the image of a... Now, I'm just trying this out, trying out this image, and I'd be happy to have some feeling whether this image works for you.

[06:06]

A gasoline engine has a crankshaft and cylinders and an ignition system. You said a crapshoot? No, I didn't say anything yet. A crankshaft, cylinders, an ignition system, and so forth. Okay, so a gasoline engine has cylinders and a piston and... Whatever, it's a bunch of parts, right? Yes. And there's no outside in a car engine. If you decide to take out the ignition system, you're going to have a problem making the car work. So, again, there's only parts.

[07:24]

Okay, now, in a world which is assumed to be in the process of creation all the time, there are only parts. There's only parts all the time. Yeah, parts, parts, parts. And, okay. Now the recognitions and engagement with the world as only parts. There's only parts extending in all directions. And you are part of the parts. That's partly what you said when you gave a kind of guided meditation yesterday.

[08:46]

So each part is essential because there's no alternative to the parts. Und jeder Teil ist essentiell, weil es keine Alternative zu diesem Teil gibt. As each part of the car engine is essential. Es ist genauso, wie jeder Teil des Motors auch notwendig oder essentiell ist. Okay, so each breath is one of the parts of your existence. Und so ist jeder Atemzug ein Teil deiner Existenz. And just like, and I'm sorry to push this image, but I don't know how else to try to create a feel for it. It's ignition of the engine with the cylinders going up and down. If they start missing, you know you're going to have trouble with the car.

[10:02]

It's getting old. So each stroke of the cylinder is essential. So in this feel for the world that I'm trying to express, each breath is essential. Ist jeder Atemzug ein wesentlicher Teil? I've got lots of breaths. I can waste a few. What the hell? Dann denkst du nicht, ich habe ja ganz viele Atemzüge, und ein paar davon kann ich einfach verschwenden. Yeah, I'll pay attention to my breaths later. They're going to fire on their own.

[11:03]

Ich achte später auf meine Atemzüge. Okay. I just became a car engine. Maybe a boat. Okay. Okay, so each breath is a gift. And it's not clear how many breaths we'll Go on for your future. And each breath is considered the essential condition for the next breath. So in a world in which you're not born into an already existing container, in which there's only parts, And you are one of the parts and each breath is one of the parts.

[12:30]

And it's not even the sense that there's a whole body, yes, that can function away. The body isn't separate from the parts, obviously. Okay, now we want to, the recognition, a kind of initial enlightenment, is the recognition that you're one of the parts in an ongoing process of creation. And the realization that you are a participating part Und die Einsicht, dass du ein Teil bist, der teilnimmt oder der Teil hat.

[13:47]

The recognition, the feeling, that at each moment you're creating yourself. Die Erkenntnis oder das Gefühl, dass du dich in jedem Moment selbst erschaffst. Now, we could say that a kind of basic enlightenment is the recognition that each moment you're creating yourself. Und wir könnten sagen, dass eine... Now I'm making a distinction here between the enlightenment experience and what I'm calling basic enlightenment, the attitude of enlightenment, which when you have it, it begins to put you into a world in which enlightenment is a factor. Enlightenment is a potentiality. A potentiality in the sense that It's always possible, and only always possible, and all those ingredients are always present in this moment.

[15:13]

Yeah. Okay. So each breath is a gift. And now you've recognized you're a participant in your own creation, because there's no outside creation. The degree to which you realize you're a participant in your own creation would be a measure of your maturity or realization. Okay.

[16:24]

Now, you recognize that you are a participant in your own creation, because there's nobody else creating you. Okay. How do I get access to my own creation? Each breath is your access to your own creation. So if I were to write a book, as you know I like writing, whether it will turn into a book, we don't know. If I were to write a book, and as you know, I like writing. I don't know if writing ever turns into a book. I might say, each breath is your participation in your own creation.

[17:29]

End of book. Here it is. If I were to write a book like this, I would say, every breath is your participation in your own creation process. And that's the end of the book. If you really have that feeling, you'll turn everything into practice. If breath is your own creation and each breath is a vehicle for attention and each breath as a allows you to use it as a vehicle to bring attention into your body. Now, I said there's no outside.

[18:30]

Of course, practically speaking, there's an inside. If your kid swallows a nickel or a coin, you hope it comes out good. And to be sure, you need a metal potty. But that's not thought of really as an inside. It's maybe the outside folded in. So the concept of outside and inside really isn't there. It's a concept of folding. From this way of thinking, this has no inside.

[19:38]

It's just folded to create the illusion of an inside. And that interest, that way of looking at it, is the source of origami. Which is the concept that all surfaces can become inside or outside. So if it's just a matter, inside is an outside folded in and outside is an inside folded out, then this concept of folding is really important.

[20:41]

When you eat, you're folding in phenomena. And the outside is your insides folded out. The phenomena is your insides folded out. It's thought of that way. So this distinction between outside and inside, or that's different and weird, just really doesn't exist, except in a very practical sense. Okay. So there's the breath practice of anapanasati. Yeah, and we tend to, in the West, emphasize the breath practice of satipatthana.

[21:54]

Und im Westen neiden wir dazu, die Atempraxis des Satipatthana zu betonen. But the practice of Satipatthana, so-called the four foundations of mindfulness, aber die Praxis des Satipatthana, die sogenannten vier Pfeiler der Achtsamkeit, is rooted in, depends on, the practice of Anapanasati. Beruht auf und ist abhängig von der Praxis des Anapanasati. Now the sati part is the shmirti in Sanskrit and in English mindfulness. Really, the term mindfulness is so useful in English, but it's not really a good translation. One good one, I think, is inspection. That's introspection.

[23:10]

Or maybe to hold in mind is better than mindfulness. Or maybe to hold in mind is better than mindfulness. Yeah, because, again, if I say these things, they're not true. It's not fake news, but it's not true. Okay, what I mean by saying it's not really true, it's only an approximation. Okay. So, um... If you said to a Chinese or Japanese person, well, there's mind, they would say, oh, they'd understand that mind is different from the body.

[24:49]

But they'd understand that in a very provisional, traditional person, not too westernized, would understand that in a very provisional way. They might be saying in their mind, well, you can say that, but it's not really true. Because the mind is simply not really in any activity conceived as separate from the body. Weil Geist nicht wirklich in irgendeiner Aktivität als getrennt vom Körper verstanden wird. And in fact you do separate them. Und wenn du sie dann tatsächlich doch voneinander trennst.

[25:52]

It's the body which engages the mind, not the other way around. Dann ist es immer noch der Körper, der den Geist einbindet und nicht andersrum. And it's the body which engages the world. So if you develop yourself, you develop yourself through the body. So it's not simply studying, but rather how you study. Also geht es nicht wirklich darum zu studieren, sondern darum, wie du studierst. And the crazy overemphasis on repetition in Chinese and Japanese pedagogy is really rooted in the concept that it has to be embodied and not just thought. Maybe it helps us if we think of everything as a craft.

[26:55]

Und vielleicht hilft es uns, wenn wir uns alles als eine Handwerkskunst vorstellen. The process of understanding something is the craft of bringing the body and circumstances into your understanding. To bring the body and circumstance into your understanding. Into your experience. Okay. So the measure of even intelligence is your engagement with each moment and engagement with others. Okay, so let's get back to Anapanasati. Anapanasati is the investigation or the holding in mind the movements of the body.

[28:31]

Now it's sometimes translated as mindfulness of the body. But it's really the bringing of attention to the movements of the body. It's like if you bring your car, your car isn't functioning. You know, usually cars, when they break down, they operate fine when you bring them to the mechanic. Well, there was no problem while I was here at the shop, they said. Well, there was no problem while I was here at the shop. But a good mechanic says, let me listen to the engine.

[29:51]

You turn it on, he listens a little bit. He says, yeah, the fan belt, and there's something else going on, maybe the oil. That's anapanasad. You begin to listen to, feel your body. And the access to feeling and listening to the body is bringing attention to the movements of the body and the breath. Like you get so that you can monitor them. your body just by the general feeling.

[31:03]

And Jack would say, oh, I hear that, let me give you this plant. And Jack would then say, okay, I'll take it. He told me last night he'd give me a plant for my cold. So you learn to notice the movements of the body. And that practice for, you know, a good part of your early practice, some years, is before you really engage in satipatthana. Of course, you're also, again, developing the muscle of attention.

[32:05]

And again, you're making pathways for attention to find its way through and within the body. Yeah. And you notice more, and Zeki Roshi, Christian Diller, who's often been here and translated here too, He used the phrase in his lectures in the recent 90-day practice period at Creston. A phrase he kept using for the practice period participants. was to bring attention to the minutiae of your experience.

[33:18]

And he kept emphasizing that. And as a teacher, he's watching to see if he's a good teacher and really gives good lectures. I'm so glad. So he can watch, he can feel whether the various people in the practice period are really active. attentive to the minutiae of their experience, or are they still in generalizations, generalities? You can watch a person walk, take a drink of water, do anything, and immediately see if their attention is in the minutiae of their experience. So anapanasati is a practice of bringing attention, developing the skill of bringing attention to the minutiae of your experience.

[34:37]

And the minutia begin to educate the attention. Now, I see you guys once a year, a few of you a little more. But if we live together, our mutual attention would be more and more sensing each other's minutia of experience. And if we develop that mutual resonant feel of attentiveness, it would be the minutiae of our experience speaking to each other.

[35:52]

Okay, so, if you know this, and that's why I'm mentioning it, of course, This is not just now you have to go to Johanneshof or Crestone and hang out for a while until the minutiae of your experience is overwhelming. Right now, you can try to engage the minutiae of your experience. Okay. So, as your attention develops subtlety, and as your attention develops ability to stay in place without moving, and as your attention, through the practice of anapanasati,

[37:05]

begins to be imbued with stillness even in its activity. So if mindfulness is better translated as to hold in mind, That holding in mind really means that attention is not just kind of directed and pushed towards something, that its stillness envelops the something that's being noticed. dann bedeutet dieses Halten nicht einfach nur, dass die Aufmerksamkeit ausgerichtet wird und auf etwas hinweist, sondern dass dieses Halten in diesem Halten da umschließt die Stille der Aufmerksamkeit, das was es hält. Now I'm speaking about this in this craft-like detail. Not to precipitate some vanity in yourself.

[38:26]

Oh, I can't do this, it's too much for me. That is a form of vanity. It's I can't do this. I'm mentioning it in this craft-like way because it does make it accessible because this craft is available to each one of us. So this anapanasati again is to be simply, the code is, the rubric is, attention to the movements of the breath. In an entity-based world, we just think that's a state.

[39:40]

But in an activity-based world, you know, that assumes that's only an over and over again starting point. So that as you begin to notice the movements of the body and the breath, through the breath, as the breath. More and more you feel the circulatory system also affecting the breath.

[40:46]

You feel what you just ate affecting your breath. And your circulatory system. And you feel which muscles are tightening up or not, according to what someone just said to you. At that moment, you feel the trigger of the muscle in your shoulder tighten. It's not like later you notice it. You notice it at the moment it happens. So the practice of Anapanasati engages you in immediacy. Because this breath This breath, this breath, like that.

[41:51]

It's not a generalization, oh, now I'm breathing. Because if you're going to be attentive to each breath, each breath is slightly different. No single breath is the same, just the way it is. So by bringing attention to the movements of the body as breath, as each breath at a particular moment and engages you in immediacy. And just as there's no outside to this process, the agentivity of I is, you know, pretty very not much present. And more and more, you feel the breath, also there's practice, follow the breath, not just count the breath, but follow the breath means now you can feel the breath throughout the body.

[43:24]

And the pulse of the breath and the pulse of the circulatory system. And the pulse of the circumstances you need. And the pulse of the person standing next to you. So now you feel a kind of pulse with other people, a kind of oscillating field of each breath of each person. And I've never practiced martial arts. Just never felt very martial, I guess. Marshal means manly or something or what?

[44:44]

Marshal means military. Or military. Yeah, I always felt I'm willing to be defeated, defeat me. But I'm saying that, you know, I'm just joking and, you know, a little weird with all my engagement with China and Japan, I've never been interested in martial arts. But I am very impressed with people who are. And I've found their skills, sometimes their skills are quite impressive, are very closely related to practice.

[45:49]

And I did study actually Qigong as a martial art for a while, what the heck. But my point is here, to the extent that I know something about martial arts, you're entering into the breath-body space of your sand. You're not entering into them as an activity, or I mean as an entity. And as just as each breath is an entry into your activity, your own activity.

[47:01]

The shared breath field allows you to enter directly into the activity of all the different people in the field. I'm mentioning this only to sort of give you a feeling for the extension of this anapanasati, which is in the end also the root of martial arts practice, as to the extent that I understand it. So that's more than enough about the Anapanasati. Do you know anybody named Ana? Our middle name is Passanti.

[48:11]

So maybe after the break we can have the Satipatthana. Okay, thank you very much. And thank you for translating that. She's going to leave today. But I have a secret voice hiding over there.

[48:34]

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