impermanent things. And you're creating an image. A little bit of an image of the breath is long or short. And this idea of a gate is also a kind of image. Each breath can be a gate. You stop a moment with each breath. And it turns the breath into a gait. No, I mean this, maybe it sounds crazy I'm describing something in such detail. But you're shifting your attention now into your breath. Into the details of your breath, the physical details of your breath, not the idea of your breath.

[01:11]

There's a woman, a Swiss woman, I can't remember her name right now. But all the scientists, or many scientists in Switzerland, said there was no pollution coming out of the nuclear power plants in Switzerland. But this woman, I know her, but I'm sorry, I can't remember her name right now. And she draws insects, particularly, and also flowers and insects. And she was drawing these insects very carefully. And she noticed that they had like a back leg growing out of the side of their head.

[02:27]

And she told local scientists, they said, oh no, we've looked at the insects, but they didn't look carefully. They looked from their memory-based image of the insect and saw their memory-based image. Sie haben ihr so erinnerungsgestütztes Bild der Insekten genommen und von da aus, von diesem erinnerungsgestützten Bild, das Insekt betrachtet. But she had to draw it, so she had to look very differently at each particular insect. Aber sie, die Schwarzerin, da sie das nun zeichnen wollte und musste, musste sie also ganz auf andere und genauere Weise, also jede Einzelheit betrachten. And at first she couldn't figure it out. But because sometimes it wasn't that way, sometimes it was that way.

[03:31]

And there weren't regular deformities, there were odd deformities. And then she began to notice they were usually within several mile, kilometer radius of a nuclear power plant. I don't remember the distance. But I think she did get people to recognize that this was happening. So there's something different than bringing your attention to your breath and bringing your attention to the real physical process of your breath. So bring yourself to the process of your breath really opens up this physicality of the mind.

[04:44]

And mixes the mind with the body. And the image of the breath or of the gate brings the mind into image recognizing state of mind. Now that's different than a concept recognizing state of mind. Or a regular thinking state of mind. And again, I'm trying to establish some vocabulary here. No. You already know this vocabulary.

[05:56]

Some of you know it because we've talked about it. But some of you don't know it because you haven't noticed you know it. And I can give you then the simplest example that you do know that you do know, waking up. Dreaming is a mind in which images float. Waking is a mind in which images sink. Once you've really awakened, you can't call back the dream. No, but in between sometimes you can slip back into the liquid of dreaming mind.

[07:00]

And the images of the dream float back up. So you're going between waking and sleeping, you're going to a different kind of liquid. And the images can generate a sleeping mind. So if you're having trouble going to sleep, for instance, try not to think. And if you need some mental activity, create some images. The most classic is counting sheep. Basically, you're just shuffling your mental activity into the counting of sheep.

[08:11]

But the sheep are images. And they jump over the fence into the pond of sleep. Look at the third sheep. Anyway, it's supposed to work. You could count leaping Buddhas, if you'd like. Three leaping Buddha, you know. I was just going to wake one up or put one to sleep. So when we bring image-making into the naming of our breath, We're also beginning to mix consciousness and awareness as well as body and mind.

[09:17]

It's amazing how many things one is doing when one does a simple thing like name your exhale or inhale. And in that, bringing ourselves into the gate, of the present moment. At least it's a way to feel ourselves at a kind of moment of, oh, this. Now we could discuss, for instance, what's the difference between this and thus. This and so. Okay, so that's enough for some material.

[10:41]

Some of the fabric of practice. So does somebody have something you'd like to bring up? When I name my breath and give it a name, a feeling, does that bring in a third dimension, that I say my spirit and my body, and then I name this breath with joy, that I then get a dimension closer to it? When I'm naming my breath or giving it a name and I put an emotion to it, for example, I say there is joy in this breath. Don't I do or don't I add another, a third dimension to it?

[11:45]

Of course. Natürlich. Might not work. Vielleicht funktioniert das nicht. If there's joy there, it's good. Wenn Freude da ist, ist es gut. To try to add it is a little more complicated. But if it works, hey, great. Generally, we try to make it fairly neutral. with the assumption that joy is already there. And will just come up naturally when we don't interfere. Yeah, but that's a good point. And it's certainly true that some people add misery

[12:50]

Another lousy breath. And this one is short. Jesus Christ. And I know in Zen you're supposed to have long breaths. I'm a failure. I only have short breaths. This is adding misery. Yes. What do beginners like me do? If I breathe normally and don't pay attention to my breathing, then I don't have any problems. But when I'm supposed to concentrate, I hold my breath properly.

[14:03]

And then I don't have to breathe at all. beginners like me, what do they do? When I don't think about my breath, I can breathe quite undisturbed and jiggly. When I start paying attention to my breath, I sort of stop and then I can't breathe anymore properly. Yeah, some people, a lot of people have this problem. Everyone to some extent. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And some people actually, it's a serious enough problem that they can't do a sashin because they stop breathing and they can't get enough air. But what's important, what you've done as a beginner is notice that consciousness interferes with basic processes. So, I'm trying to continue to develop a shared vocabulary here.

[15:32]

The two most basic yogic skills are one point of this and what I call Niyat. Which is non-interfering. Observing. Consciousness. So, Jörg, the abbreviation is this non-interfering, observing consciousness. Now you're not going to develop non-interfering observing consciousness until you notice that consciousness interferes.

[16:35]

So see, you're not a beginner. You're not a beginner. More trust. It adds a little bit of misery. I tell you, you're not obedient. Oh, no, I'm obedient. I have only short interfering consciousness. Really, I'm serious. You have the capacity to notice something of this kind of refinement.

[17:39]

That capacity is necessary to practice. Now, you can't really study yourself until you can observe without interfering. Now the beginner, when they first have experience of samadhi, mind concentrated on itself or mind without contents, as soon as they observe it or notice it, they lose the concentration. But a basic yogic skill is to be able to be in samadhi and notice it without losing the samadhi.

[18:42]

To notice that you're concentrated without losing the concentration. And that's quite a subtle practice. It can be shown, but it can't really be taught. Und das ist wirklich eine wirklich verfeinerte Praxis, die zwar gezeigt werden kann, aber die nicht gelehrt werden kann. It's a craft. Das ist wirklich ein Handwerk. You have to observe your breath and simultaneously leave it alone. Nämlich, dass man seinen Atem beobachtet und ihn zugleich alleine lässt. Much like the idea of the muse in poetry. So wie auch die Vorstellung der Musen in der Dichtkunst. Yeah, you have to kind of listen to your muse and also write at the same time. This is a craft.

[19:43]

So eventually, in the process of breathing, of bringing your attention to your breath, more and more, or now and then, you'll find breathing just breathes itself. Even while you're observing it. Then you have to study where the triggers are. What was the state of mind? What was the state of physical feeling? That allowed breathing to start breathing itself. So here's where the craft of practice comes in again. But a craft also based on a refined And mindfulness is a way of refining your consciousness.

[21:19]

You can think of the world as sandpaper. And your mind, you keep bringing it to the phenomena. And it's like you're sanding your mind. If I look at you with real particularity, I'm refining my mind or sanding, smoothing my mind. Something like that. So you can begin to notice exactly and feel your way into without thinking. How to observe your breath without interfering with it.

[22:28]

And to let your breathing breathe itself. And in much the same way, you begin to let your shoulders do their own zazen. It's not you doing Zazen with your shoulders coming along for the ride or the sit. As long as you're doing Zazen, you're in mental space. When your left shoulder does its own Zazen. And your right shoulder does its own Zazen. And your stomach does its own Zazen. And you'll find some parts of your body are more advanced in Zazen than other parts. This is true. Sometimes your stomach is more advanced than your shoulders.

[23:33]

Or your lower back is more advanced than your upper back. So it's good to let each part of you and there's an infinite number, practice its own sadhana. So you begin to learn to not interfere in a very deep way. You also in this way develop a real trust in how we actually exist. I'm sorry I'm giving such long answers to questions. But I really want us to build a common vocabulary of looking at these things.

[24:40]

What else? How can you learn not to interfere because I'm used to this for a long, long time? Interfering? Interfering. How can I learn not to interfere? Like I just said. Because sometimes you don't interfere. I'm absolutely certain sometimes you don't interfere. Otherwise you wouldn't go to sleep. Going to sleep is a skill of not interfering. So the point is partly to develop a refined enough We can notice the times when we already don't interfere.

[25:43]

Because it's easier to develop something we already know than to teach ourselves something new. So if you approach it from the point of view, I want to teach myself how not to interfere. This is something new to me. You've already created a barrier, an almost impossible task. But if your approach is, when do I already do this, not interfere? Then you're already ahead of the game. You're already partway there.

[26:58]

But it's also amazing that we have, I hope I don't offend anyone by saying we have 20 or 30 or 40 years of practice, each of you. Practice of being moderately deluded. So let's think of it as a practice. And if you think of it that way, it means you can bring a wisdom practice into your practice. already established habits. And luckily for us, wisdom is more powerful than delusion. Because it's consonant with how things actually exist.

[28:02]

So everything becomes your helper. Let's go back to Yamada Momon Roshi's statement. The single most important thing is to develop a deep respect for ourselves through grasping, through understanding, through really knowing that everything in the multiverse is working at this moment to make you possible, this moment possible. So all of these, that means everything is your friend.

[29:03]

Everything is here waiting to help you. A wisdom attitude, a wisdom mind. is a mind that makes use of all his help. So the therapeutic aspect of practice is to use Wisdom phrases that make the way things actually exist help us. And one or two years of practice can dramatically change 20 or 30, 40 years of habits.

[30:17]

That's kind of a miracle. You have this great big guy. I'm 30, 40 years old. I've only been practicing two weeks. But, you know, and this big, big old guy says, I've got this big club. And this little tiny guy says, I know that club really doesn't exist. And here's a wisdom moment. Boom! And the big guy just, you know, it's David and Goliath, right? So it's amazing to me that we can make a real change in our... existence through practice.

[31:31]

So what else? When I think I don't interfere, don't I in fact interfere then? Yeah, yeah, it could be. But it might not be, too. You may genuinely notice that you're not interfering. There has to be some trust, some sort of authenticity. You must be able to distinguish between when you're fooling yourself and when it's an authentic cognition, a genuine cognition.

[32:35]

And in mental space it's very difficult to distinguish. In mental space you can apply logic and say, well, this one's more logical, it's clearer, this is probably right, this one's not. But in embodied space you know the difference. Like the way you know water is wet. Are you feeling it? Are you feeling nourished by it? And you have to trust something. And you have to learn to trust the difference between a valid cognition and a false cognition. Because there's no outside situation to tell you what's true.

[33:39]

So what you're bringing up is how do you trust yourself? How do you know what's true? When you're the only reference point. That's why trust, a deep trust and knowing is necessary in practice. And usually that deep trust is more likely to be there When you're doing things more for others than for yourself. When you're doing something for your baby rather than for yourself.

[34:42]

Or when you have this altruistic view of enlightenment is only possible when your practice is thoroughly for others' enlightenment. So you had a question? You said that wisdom and serenity belong to these gates of the moment, to these gates of the moment. I often have the problem that joy and serenity You said that joy and relaxation are Yeah, detachment.

[35:49]

Yeah, detachment are the gates. And sometimes the joy is a little in the way to detachment for me. But I like both. I like joy. Yeah, I like joy. More. More. Yeah. Good. Detachment is the emphasis and characteristic of earlier Buddhism, and joy and bliss are more the emphasis of later Buddhism. Yeah, yeah, see, the whole history of Buddhism sitting right here in front of me.

[36:54]

And she made a decision, the right decision for later Buddhism. See how much we know? The problem is that with the joy I can sort of rush over things and with detachment I am more with things together. Good, I'm glad you noticed that. So what you need is the Bliss of detachment. Okay, so now you know what to work on.

[37:56]

Or to open yourself to. Good. I think it's a good time to stop for lunch. So maybe again we sit for a moment or two. There's change.

[39:46]

Let's have some light. Oh. Is that too much? Maybe one of them turned on. How's that? Which one do you like? I liked it better when I was there. It's okay. Could we open all three in this? All three? Only two are possible. The third one doesn't work. Sukershi said, we live in this world in order to try to continuously express our Buddha nature.

[41:34]

Moment after moment. That's a good job description. Why are you here on this planet? Why are you here living in this century? Oh, to try to express my Buddha nature continuously, moment after moment. Why not? That's... Better than most jobs. Maybe you could combine it with your job. Yeah. So now we've... brought ourselves down to the present moment.

[42:46]

Or perhaps up to the present moment. At least as defined by breath. And breath may be as good a defining unit as any. Because, okay, we have this statement, you know, that makes some sort of sense. The gate of the present moment.

[43:49]

So, yeah, okay. What is the present moment? Who's going to tell us? I mean, like, as I said, we have to come into our own sense of a valid cognition, we have to determine for ourselves what's the present moment. What are its boundaries? Yeah. Does it have boundaries? What is its center? Can we find its center? How would we do this? I mean, again, this is our problem. Present moment.

[45:00]

We're not talking about science. We're not talking about how physics would define the present moment. I mean, this is your present moment. I'm quite sure a dust mite has a different present moment. What? Yeah. A dust mite. These things that live in the sheets of pillows. Oh, yeah. Eine Möbel. Ja, eine Möbel. Ja, danke. Ja, dass eine Möbel... Do you think it was a mighty dust or something? It was a piece of dust. No, no. Dust mites. Ah, ja. Danke. It causes allergies and things like that. Ja, also eine Hausstaubmöbel. That was a scientific... medical... There's a doctor in the house. This is no comment on your knowing that.

[46:05]

He got interested in a certain kind of water critter. Critter is short for creature. No, creature is just... Colloquial for creature is critter. Like maybe it's cowboy talk. That critter over there. Yeah, so anyway... Is my translator stealing the show? Anyway, Tsukiyoshi had learned the name of this little creature.

[47:11]

And he was just a school boy, really. And they were doing something with the other disciples in the stream. I don't know what they were doing. And the teacher said, don't show off. Anyway, I don't think you are showing. Thank you. Even if you are stealing the show. Or a whale, or a hummingbird, or a dragonfly. They all have a different present moment. So each of us has to decide what our present moment is. So, I mean, a good candidate for the defining agent is the breath.

[48:18]

And as a tool of definition, is breathing a good candidate? We breathe and we breathe every breath, breath, breath, etc. But maybe the breath is just a cowboy that's herding up the contents of the field. And maybe our breath sort of gets our attention to the present moment. but it's not the definer of the present moment. Now I'm bringing these up just again to show you how It's not easy to answer these questions.

[49:47]

Questions we take for granted, the present. An actual fact, what is the present? So let's say that, you know, it may not be the boundaries, it may be what's in the field. Because a gate is a gate to something. A gate to the city, a gate to a house, a gate to a garden. Okay, so what is the house of the present?

[50:50]

The garden of the present. And in this house, are there stories? Yeah. Is there activity? What's going on in this house of the present? Now in Asia, or in Japan, a square is defined by five points. So normally we'd say a square is like four points.

[52:04]

Yeah, that's a square. Why do the Japanese and yoga culture in general say a square is defined by five points? Well, what have you forgotten? The middle. Yeah, but there's lots of middles. First of all, you've forgotten me. I drew the square. I'm the fifth point. I mean, in mental space, it's four dots. In actual space, there has to be something. But, you know, me, that's me. That's one way of understanding the fifth point or the center.

[53:18]

Yeah. But a field is different for a goat than for a cow, say. So the contents of the field or activities of the field define the field as well. And our neighbor has these wonderful Scottish cows that I like a lot. I think originally raised by some guy named McNeil. He shows his Scottish ancestors. So if you were a farmer, and you had to put your goats in a field or something, Or these Scottish cows which are, I think, being moved in front of the building.

[54:42]

The goat and the cows define the field. And you can watch the local farmers, they put up these little fences, you know, to make the fields smaller so the cows graze a certain area. And that's in physical space. Actually, you know, okay, so there's a kind of movement from the center which defines the field. So this sense of a fifth point is also the sense of a field expands or contracts from the center. The center is the energy which makes it happen. And that's also why Japan, again, or Asia, doesn't say four directions, they say ten directions.

[55:49]

We say, you know, Over there toward the north, or over there toward the south. We have a sense of it being over there. In this sense of ten directions, they have a sense of coming here. The north comes to us. So in that sense, you have north, south, east, west. And then you have a center. And if you add four more directions, the center is this, up and down.

[56:57]

So the fifth point is also where heaven and earth connect. So ten directions includes heaven and earth. Everything coming to this as center, including up and down. Now that's a small difference in the way of looking at things, but it kind of makes a big difference when you begin to feel space as something coming toward us, And again, it gives you a different feeling from mental space and physical or embodied space. Geometry is It's mental space.

[58:24]

Geometry. Geometry, yes. Geometry is spiritual space. It doesn't account for the curvature of space or the actual physical world, which is slightly always out of order. And there is no explanation. He doesn't explain the curvature of space or the actual physics, which is always out of order. So over great distances, I don't think geometry works exactly. So in a more yogic culture, space is a kind of movement or changes. This room is different when we're all in it than when we're not in it. So I just took this little tangent I took this little tangent.

[59:34]

Tangent is this direction, sideward road. Ah, yes. I took this little tangent, this little sideward road. Yes. You know, it seems it's hard to sometimes recognize words which are the same in German, but you pronounce them differently. Okay. Okay. So again, I just did this to illustrate that slightly different ways of looking at things make a difference. And I would really like us, if we have time, To, after the break, gather in smaller groups of ten maybe or something like that and have some discussion with each other in your native tongue.

[60:48]

Because I, I mean... I literally translated it. Will you travel with me? I want to be a kind of, you know, the... I mean, translation is a kind of, as you just heard, discussion. So there's different versions of this coming at you, and then you have your own version. And since practice, what we're talking about, doesn't, isn't reached by words.

[61:55]

For instance, I might say to you, if I knew, you know, if you were practiced a long time, I might say, when the waves, when the light, when the, when the light, uh, reflects off the small waves. And you would know what state of mind I'm in. Because at best it can be suggested by something like that. So it's very helpful if you kind of puzzle over these things yourself. Have a conversation with yourself about these things. As you were doing about whether it's conscious or interfered with and so forth. And so it's also helpful if we do it with each other.

[63:19]

But let me go on with this a little bit. So we're trying to come into now what is this present moment? Perhaps it doesn't have boundaries, but it may have a center. And the center may change its boundaries. And it's going to have contents. Because again, as we take the phrase from the Genjo koan, just what appears. I mean, we see the sunlight when it shines on something. Mm-hmm. So our mind is shining on its contents.

[64:30]

So, again, what is the house of the present moment or garden? Okay, now we've got the feeling that the breath brings us into this present moment. But now we're here, what's here? Okay, I mean, I could make a simple list of what are the contents of the present moment. Maybe you could add to the list. I hope you can. But I'll make a list. The present moment is sixfold.

[66:02]

Now that's obvious, right? Because we have six senses. Or five senses plus mind. Yeah. We can think of it as something like... There's... Eyes. Eye. Ear. Nose. Looks like a nose. Taste. It looks like a tongue.

[67:04]

Those are the five senses. Yoga culture always adds a hunk. A sixth, named mind. And mind is... Like that. Mind also includes all the others. Because mind, none of these, an eyeball by itself doesn't function. And your eyeball is actually a projection of your brain. Because mind, colorful and So all senses include a mental aspect.

[68:09]

And this is a sense of senses in that where does our sense of the world originate? Well, I see you. That's something original. Something arises, I see. And I hear you and so on. But also some memory can arise. Mental associations. So that's considered a point at which the world arises in us. Now, this particular kind of mind is sometimes called Manas in Abhidharma. And the perceptual process is, if we said this is a perception, Something comes into us, right?

[69:23]

And goes out to the thought-constructing part of our mind. And Manas exists here. At Manavijjana it's called. And it actually conditions perception before the perception occurs. But it also edits the perception for the next step. Now, you don't have to understand all this stuff unless you're interested. But what I'm showing you this because they really tried to understand back in the early part of

[70:29]

the first millennium, how the present moment establishes itself. So we can't just look, we have to look at these things as reality. And Therapeutic. And soteriological. So they're tied together. It means salvational or heading toward enlightenment or something. I mentioned it this morning. So every teaching reflects reality. is beneficial and leads to enlightenment.

[71:43]

If you understand this, you can understand what's the shape of Buddhist teaching. Because there's many things that are therapeutic. Buddhism says, oh, let's teach the therapeutic things that also reflect how we actually exist. And let's describe those things that how we actually exist that lead to enlightenment. These are limiting factors for each other. So if you look at a particular teaching, you can see that, oh, it benefits me, it shows me reality, and it leads me to enlightenment.

[72:51]

Now, I've been working with a group of therapists for about eight years. And I've suggested, and they're working on developing a kind of Not psychotherapy, but dharma therapy. Now as dharma therapists, they would mostly emphasize this, and they wouldn't necessarily emphasize this. Dharma therapists would emphasize the first two, but not necessarily the third two. To emphasize the third, then you're more of a spiritual teacher. So they then looked at the mental processes back in the beginning of the first millennium of the common era. And they tried to really get down.

[74:05]

They looked at how the mental processes work. I've given you an example. The main example I've given you over and over again of how views condition perception, is to say, is the difference between seeing space as connecting or space as separate. We all take for granted that space separates. I'm here and you're over there. And if you have that view here, before perception occurs, it will cause your perceptions to reify or support, verify that space separates.

[75:26]

So the views you have occur prior to perception. And then even after the perception, there's an editing process of what goes into the thought. So these early Abhidharma theorists analyze the mind into perception, editing mind, shaping mind, thought-producing mind, And they were concerned, where does this happen in the brain? Although you may be able to identify brain areas with these functions. Although you may be able to identify brain areas where this could take place.

[76:46]

Their purpose, though, was to define the brain in terms of its processes, which they did just like you might. By developing mindfulness skills, they observe how they function. they looked at how meditation occurred, in terms of how we can practice with it, from these three points of view. This we could call enlightenment, if you will, or realization. Okay. So each perception is sixfold.

[77:54]

Second, each perception is a sign or a mental representation. Now, if we're practicing Buddhism. It's first of all a practice of mindfulness and sitting meditation.

[78:56]

But the views we bring to the views and attitudes we bring to mindfulness practice and to sitting practice are what turns mindfulness and sitting practice into Buddhism. So if you want to practice seriously, you have to start looking at the attitudes you have in the act of perception. Okay, one of the basics, the basic of all of Buddhism is that everything is changing. Now most of us agree everything is changing.

[80:07]

But rarely have we thought through the implications of that. Rarely have we thought through the degree to which impermanence permeates everything. Yeah. nor have we thought through the isolating, seriously isolating effect of being involved in subtle forms of permanence.

[81:36]

On some sort of general level, everything's changing, but really we're always involved in trying to perceive as if things were permanent or might be. Okay, so there's some antidotes. One of the antidotes is to recognize that everything's a mental representation. In reality, this is a fact. Okay, I keep coming back to this because I would like you to have a habit of

[82:44]

noticing everything's a mental representation. The way I'd like you to have a habit of resting in your breath 24 hours a day. Mm-hmm. Mental representation, it's obvious. I'm looking at you. But I'm actually looking at my own mind looking at you. If I see you, I see my mental representation of you. I know you're out there, as I say, but Still, you're a mental representation. And if I throw her a stick, you know, she shouldn't catch it.

[83:53]

And Because our perceptions need to tell us that something might hit us on the head. But we're fooled by this to think it's outside. In fact if I do throw this to you, your mind makes a very elaborate calculation of the arch of it and catches it. And if you didn't make that mental calculation, You get hit on the head all the time.

[84:58]

So mental processes are going on to determine where that thing is outside. It's amazing how you can drive a car at relatively fast speeds through tiny openings. Especially when they change the lanes on the Autobahn and you end up with these narrow lanes and trucks not in their lane and you still have to scoot through. Okay. Ideally, if you're going to practice adept practice, the craft is to train yourself to notice that you're always seeing your own mind.

[86:01]

When I look at you, you give me an excuse to see my own mind. A very nicely shaped excuse, all of you. And as I say, since I actually quite like my mind, So you make me happy all the time because you give me an excuse to see my own mind. So I'm not so likely to become unhappy just because you're scowling. Scowling is hmmm. Again, it's like you hear something, you hear your own hearing. And that's the first sensorial... quality that we notice in meditation.

[87:24]

For some reason, when we're sitting, we often hear whatever is going on around us. For example, commonly the birds And the birds make us hear our own hearing. And again, we know another bird would hear this differently. Another bird. Okay, so the practice is to notice each perception to the degree to whether it's sound,

[88:29]

or sight, etc. And the six are always there. Even if I look at you, you're stuck in front of me, I'm sorry, even if I look at you and you're silent, then the absence of sound is a part of the perception. Because we function this way, we also function through noticing the absence of, like with a stone, sound or smell or something. Okay, so each looking at the contents of the present moment. The contents of the present moment.

[89:51]

Perceptual basis. So sixfold mental representation. And clarity of views. Things that qualify or change perceptions. Now, I've already discussed that in talking about whether space connects or separates. But the most standard example is subject-object duality. But the most common or standard topic is the duality of subject and object.

[90:56]

And the way we normally practice with views is to take a wisdom view and try to embody it. Like just now is enough. Just now it's not enough, but at the fundamental level it's enough. Because there's no alternative. It's like these cookie Zen stories, like you're hanging from a cliff with a rope in your mouth. And there's a large group of tigers below. And your teacher says, what's that mantra I gave you? The teacher says, what's that mantra I gave you?

[92:05]

But the subject-object duality, if you want to press with it, is also to dissolve the self-other distinction. That's the root of the practice of bowing in a monastery when you pass each other. And that is the root of this practice of hiding, like in a monastery, when you meet each other, you hide in front of each other. Someone is passing by, you hold an eye. the other person or bless sentience. And I like the word bless because it means to blossom. So you let non-duality blossom at that moment. And you can practice it with this by noticing the degree to which, say I'm talking to Hans-Petro.

[93:47]

And I notice in talking to him, I have some feeling, oh, that's Hans-Petro. I know what he's about to say. I know him quite well. And he'll say what he usually says. I could say that to any one of you, right? So what have I done when I do that? I've killed him. for a moment in a self-other distinction. So at the moment I notice I do that, I can dissolve. I can let myself feel that distinction drop away.

[94:49]

So I feel naked for a moment. It's just like we don't know what's going to happen next. I don't know what he's going to say next. I don't even know if he's a A bear or a deer. I mean, he's a Hans Pedro, but sometimes he might be a bear. I don't know. And so, in the Diamond Sutra, it says, no lifespan. No self. No person. No living being. What's this teaching about? It's about dissolving the self out of distinction. I mean, if I think of him as a Hans Pedro, I've made a distinction.

[95:52]

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