Good morning again. Okay. Well, the way I practice with the teaching is I find some part that catches me, appeals to me. or that I need. And I pay more attention to that part than the whole of the teaching. The microphone's on. So we're going to get the sound of a spider going up and down. People say, what's that sound? I pay more attention, yeah.

[01:05]

You look at him, he says, hey, I'm retreating into the holes in the microphone. And then I practice that part as thoroughly as possible. And I actually try to see if I can recreate the whole of the teaching from that part. It makes sense. And if I can practice it. In a sense, I'm trying to create the teaching myself. One of the first things I noticed in doing this is a lot of the lists of you do this, then you do this, then you do this.

[02:13]

I have relevance up to about six or seven and then they start being, they want to round it out to ten. In fact, historically, there was a period where they tried to make all lists ten. But then I go back to the traditional formulation of the teaching. Yeah, often years later or months later. And I'm always astonished at how rich it is to go back and find what at that time I couldn't produce from myself, from my own practice.

[03:14]

But I still can't practice something or teach something unless I can practice it. Okay. Now there's this, coming back to this sense of gates, Yeah, and behind the idea of Gates is the validity of what you notice. is not to think about what you notice, but just to notice what you notice.

[04:31]

And I like the word notice because it's related to knowing. And in English, at least, it has quite a strong feeling. Und im Englischen hat das zumindest ein sehr starkes Gefühl. When you leave, notice that it's a right turn. When you... When you leave somewhere, you say, but notice that it's a right turn at such and such a place. Okay, now can I come back to your question? Could you, so we start again, ask again? I think I have understood your answer. Yeah, yeah, but I want to give you another answer. I get a bucket of answers here.

[05:36]

So the meditation on breath, you find it in different Buddhist meditations, but also in psychotherapy in use in different ways? And my question is, are there differences because the direction or where it should lead to is also different? And it also touched me deeply when you explained the difference or the ways of Hinayana and Zen and also the old and the modern. Earlier and modern. So to focus on the one side, on control, and on the other, trust or faith?

[07:03]

So also in psychotherapy you find different ways of understanding and you could also do a contrast between more oriented towards resources and more oriented towards deficit. Resources means strength? Strength, resources. What do you mean by resources? Resources, for example, trust that my breath can breathe on its own, and on the other hand, I have to do something. Yeah, yeah, okay. Well, first of all, it depends who's asking the question, of course. If you're asking me the question, it's different. If someone is asking you the question, Maybe the best thing is to say it doesn't matter. If it really doesn't matter, just tell them it doesn't matter.

[08:16]

But for some people, it might matter, and then you can give them a different answer. Now, it's fairly easy to distinguish between whether it's a Buddhist practice or not. It's more difficult to distinguish whether it's Mahayana or Theravada or Hinayana. And almost certainly, A Theravadan practitioner would object to my saying there's more emphasis on control. But that's the way a Mahayana person sees it. But a Theravadan person also doesn't see how the Mahayana way functions either.

[09:19]

It's a lot, again, like a church that's simultaneously Romanesque and Gothic. Okay. But now, first of all, the difference in a breathing practice... Yeah, they're pretty much the same. And the more you let your breathing breathe itself, rather than trying to control your breathing, the more it's Buddhist practice and Zen practice in particular. One of the differences would be the thoroughness with which you emphasize breathing practice. Thoroughness in your emphasis.

[10:34]

The more thorough you are, the more likely it's a Buddhist practice. you're just doing it to relax. That's a Buddhist practice too, but it's any practice then. But if you see, if you do it so thoroughly, and within the vision or envisioning of a yogic body, Then it's more a yoga breathing than a relaxation breathing.

[11:35]

And if you're really emphasizing breathing as a mental posture and not a physical posture, then you're more in a Buddhist camp. And when you see it as a transformative practice, when you can transform the way you function, the way self... functions, then you're really into a Buddhist practice. So these are differences in degree, differences in degree in the practice, and a radical difference in concept. I would say something like that. Yeah. Okay. Yes. I would like to come to the therapeutic work at this point, where I notice that I also practice this attention to the breath and see how someone sits opposite me and how someone breathes.

[13:00]

I would like to come at this point back to my therapeutic work, where I also use the attention of my breath to look at how I am with another person and how this person is breathing. And I notice in myself and also in other persons that a lot of persons tend to breathe very shallow and hold the breath, especially when emotions are present. And so I wanted to know whether there are in a Buddhist way or practice, there are possibilities how you can let emotions come to rest or something like that, other than expressing them. Surely I will speak about that when I come to the third foundation of mindfulness.

[14:34]

But you can... Remind me if I don't speak to it clearly. Yeah. But one basic difference in the model is you don't have a choice between repression and expression. You don't have a choice between repression and expression. You have a choice between feeling it completely but not acting on it. Okay. Now, coming back to the Using the idea of gates as a teaching?

[15:35]

First of all, what is such a list? It assumes a trust in what you notice. What you notice is deeper than what you think. Okay. Okay. Why make a list then? Just notice what you notice. Well, because mostly we tend to notice according to our foreign installation. We notice in language and so forth. Okay. All right, so the Buddhist will make a list. Or I would make a list in trying to heck with Buddhism. I'd make a list, too. Okay. Okay. On what basis would I make the list?

[17:00]

First I'd make a list. I would put first on the list, probably, what we might otherwise overlook. Yeah. Then I'd put on the list aspects of a yogic body. Or what envisions a yogic reality. And third, I'd put on the list, what can help us function and even transform our functioning. And I'd ask you to, in Zen particularly, I'd just sort of suggest the list, hint the list.

[18:08]

For example, in Theravadan Buddhism, They give you a very specific list. And although they would say, see beyond the concepts, So they free you from the list by telling you to see beyond the concept. But they still give you a list. And they ask you to memorize a list. And they ask you to do it forwards for 15 days and then backwards for 15 days and so forth. And the whole practice, going through the 32 parts of the body in each of the six parts, forwards and backwards, takes 165 days. 65 days. Zen doesn't do that.

[19:09]

Oh, my goodness, this is too hard. We just say, hey, a list is useful to point out some things you can notice. But how you notice it, it's pretty much up to you. Instead of saying, instead of giving you a sequence, In Zen we'd say, notice there may be a sequence. See the difference in flavor. Feel if there is a sequence. And then there's sort of various lists for clear comprehension. There's lists underneath this list. And the list for clear comprehension is something like, notice if there's a sequence.

[20:36]

don't go too quickly don't go too slowly see beyond the concepts in other words don't notice the lungs Or don't notice the finger. Don't even think it's a finger. Notice from inside the finger. Discover if it's a finger. Yeah. Notice if you get absorbed or don't get absorbed. Some parts of the body will absorb your attention and some won't.

[21:44]

Notice if you can view a part of the body clearly or you can't. And also through noticing clearly, you establish a sequence. Well, I can notice my right lung clearly. It's harder to notice my left lung. So then you skip the left lung for a while. And come back to it till you notice it, can notice it clearly. Anyway, there's that kind of suggestion on how you notice. Okay. Now, Here we're trying to, the basic idea behind this is to engage you in the particular.

[22:59]

Of constantly moving you away from generalizations. And away from the generalization of the self. So you're more and more moving toward a noticing that's participatory rather than an observer that controls. You're more experienced than noticing as a mediation than a control. And when you start noticing the self-function as a mediating function, you don't have so much guilt.

[24:09]

Because you're mediating, you're doing the best you can in a situation. And you're accumulating karma differently. So cause and effect is not so clear, right or wrong. So there's a big difference when you begin to experience the self-function as a mediator and a participant. Okay. All right, so I thought... I thought I would maybe look at the four elements before the parts. And I would try to define it as four and not overlapping into five or six. Okay, now one of the important things here is That you're observing your what-ness, not your who-ness.

[25:34]

This is really a big difference. What's the difference? Who separates you? What connects you? Who am I separates me from you. And separates me from the trees. I don't ask who is a tree. I ask what is a tree. So at least for a while give up your wholeness in this practice. And notice wholeness. what you are. Now, if you go to a doctor and you say, I'm having trouble with my stomach or my lungs or something. Now, the doctor might would the doctor ask, what is the problem?

[26:44]

The doctor doesn't ask, who is the problem? That's your job to ask, who is the problem? And there may be a who that's causing the problem. I mean, a who in you. Yeah. What's wrong? What is happening? So these teachings are all based on asking what is happening, not who is happening. You really have to take on a what, and see if it disturbs you to ask what are you instead of who are you. Yeah, okay. Okay, so the four elements are earth, water, Air and fire.

[27:56]

Okay, now how is that understood? Why bother? Again, like medieval alchemists, it's what we share with the world. So here in a yogic vision of the world, we're not trying to define us the caretaker of the world and animals. But the definition is always, how are we part of the world? Okay, so what is solidity? Well, obviously it's your... the stuff of you. But it's also the foundation. What gives you a feeling of a foundation?

[29:00]

And what receives and accepts? This pillow is an earth element in the sense that it receives the bell. So the softness is the earth element too. Okay. So when I do kin hin, you can also do kin hin to practice the four elements. So when I lift my foot, I'm using the function of the earth element, of this air element. Because the air element is space which allows movement. I can feel my heel coming, able to come up into the space.

[30:12]

Now, it seems funny to notice that, who the heck has, it's too obvious. It's obvious if you think about it. It's not obvious if you practice. And I would like to say at this point that if any of you really want to practice Buddhism seriously, you'll take one practice and do it and forget about understanding. It would be much more important to master unison of breathing and body If it takes you two years, just do that. Don't worry about understanding anything. And you'll be surprised at how much understanding flows from that effort, from that practice.

[31:13]

Okay, so... So how you notice is how you bring attention to things. What you bring attention to is what you are. It's a big, big, big ingredient in what you are. Okay, so if I feel When I lift my foot, this is the air element, Or the space element. I feel the space of my heel as well as the heel. And I feel my heel creating space. Like Gisela is there and she creates a Gisela space.

[32:14]

We put walls here, we create a space here. If I put my hand out in the room, it's a different space. You begin to feel it. So as I lift my foot, it's the air element. If my foot is loose as it moves, it's the water element. When you watch a swimmer, if it's a person who swims pretty well, their hand is just completely loose as they come out. Titans here.

[33:21]

Yes, some amateur swims like this, and a better swimmer just swims like this, and then... So a swimmer who feels the water element here in the air and the earth element in the water is relaxing here and moving the body forward this way. Because water has a tendency to follow gravity. So when your hand follows gravity, we call that the earth element, the water element. So now, if when I lift my heel, I feel a fusion or concentration coming out of my body, That's the fire element.

[34:29]

It's what fuses, what concentrates. Okay. Intensifies. Okay, now in my zazen posture, if I am folding my legs, if my legs more or less go together pretty easily and they feel relaxed. That's the water element. If I do this, see how loose that finger is? If I don't think about it. That's the water element. If I do it with my right hand, which is I'm right-handed, it's not so easy because there's more consciousness in it. So I can do it, but I have to kind of suspend consciousness, saying, I get stiffer and stiffer.

[35:33]

So consciousness is the earth element. Because it stiffens things up. Awareness is the water element. So with a certain kind of sensitivity, it's possible through my left hand, which is not through my right hand. Okay, now if you know a person who is too strong, for instance, in the earth element, their body will be full of conscious being. And they'll be quite stiff. but you can trust them because they're there like a tree tree means trust you know somebody who has the water element too much water they accommodate themselves too much

[36:44]

adjust themselves too much to another person. They tell people what people want to hear. And you sometimes can't trust them as much. But they also, the water element person is a person who can understand more easily. Understand other people more easily. Because their mind flows between the words. And flows into the mind of the author or the mind of the speaker. Yeah. So, how can you practice with this? If you notice you're more an earth element person, then you try to notice the parts of you which are more fire element or water element.

[38:08]

And you try to bring those in. When you sit zazen, And when your stomach relaxes. That's the water element. When your stomach relaxes, makes your whole configuration of your body change, that's the air element. For instance, when you are sitting for a little while, And suddenly you can move up into a more upright posture. It's like all little alignments can happen and you can just feel a lifting feeling. That lifting feeling is the air element.

[39:09]

And a person who has a strong air element is a person who also has a strong presence around them. A person who has a strong earth element tends to take the air away from situations. You trust them, but you feel confined about it. But you like and immediately love the water element person. And the fire element person you're a little scared of. They tend to burn you up a bit. So it's actually useful to notice these things.

[40:21]

And you can see couples choose each other according to the different elements. Now, this isn't a science. And it's just something that you notice and you notice it has some functioning in you. And you begin to see things again through the parts and not through a governing self. And this sense of the four elements, we could pick some other designation. It's just the four elements is useful. So let's take this room. When we do kin-hin, by following the walls, we're acknowledging the earth element. When we open the windows and doors, when we can feel the freedom to go out in the hall and et cetera, that's the air element.

[41:30]

Now, if you had a Frank Lloyd Wright house, if you had a what? Frank Lloyd Wright house, Wenn du ein Frank Lloyd Wright Haus hättest. Or maybe a house Wittgenstein designed in Vienna. Oder so ein Haus wie das Wittgenstein entworfen hat in Wien. where the living room and kitchen and dining room sort of flow into each other, an architect who designed that way would have a strong water element in the way they designed. These spaces don't flow into each other very well, so this is an architect who emphasizes solidity, the earth element. But if it's an architect who emphasizes the fire element, an extreme example of that would be a Gothic church.

[42:34]

But if you put Georgian peace, Georgian, that doesn't mean anything to you. I guess it does. Do you use Georgian as an architectural term? pediments over the shapes around all the windows and things that would be the fire element because it concentrates you as you look out so a baroque church would be extremely fire element so these When you begin to feel these in yourself, you also feel them in the world. And you don't think you're so different.

[43:38]

You keep feeling connections. And it's not an alchemy, alchemy chemical theory or something like that. As a practice, it's quite separate from the medieval idea of the elements, the Western medieval idea of the elements. So an exercise is different from this western medieval theory of elements. So if you can relax and all your body parts move freely with each other, your mind also moves more free.

[44:47]

This you can notice. And zazen posture gives you a chance to notice these things. When you feel the lifting and the relaxing and the openness and so forth. And the fusion, the concentration. You can notice the mind also is affected by the four elements of the body. And the mind also participates with the four elements. So we have this kind of old teaching, but it's useful today. Okay, so maybe we take a break a little earlier today. Let's sit for a couple of minutes

[45:58]

It's an expression from betting. Are we still on course? I saw she had some money over there, which made me think, are we on the money? So anything you want to say or bring up or something before we enter into the parts of the body? Yes. For me, there is a contradiction. On the one hand, there was the suggestion not going ahead of the first foundation of mindfulness. or just doing one breathing practice for like two years or so.

[48:08]

And on the other hand, this morning, the suggestion from the variety of teaching to pick one, do it for a period of time. . The one side, it sounds like a sequence or hierarchy of teaching, and the other side is like coming from myself when I choose one teaching. It's also like a hierarchy. A hierarchy coming from myself, the other side. It's a kind of art or craft. You have to make a decision. But there are some practices, very clearly, that you don't want to do until you have developed your mindfulness, for instance.

[49:35]

And as I said yesterday, I believe it's a sequence in thoroughness and realization, not a sequence in so much which you practice. For example, you get a sense of the whole of the practice of mindfulness, four foundations of mindfulness. But you concentrate primarily on the first one. And within the first one, you might concentrate primarily on breath. Does that make sense? This means in putting yourself in relationship to the teaching that you in every day, you

[50:51]

I only do one practice. I say, weaving body and mind together with the breathing. That's my everyday practice. Going as often as I think I did, or as I practice. But in general, I also deal with the whole teaching. Is that what you tried to answer? Yeah. Yeah. What you mean by that and what I mean by that might be a little different. I mean, I remember it. I hate to admit it, but I'm an American. And we're not so... likely to take a particular way of doing something as thoroughly as a German person would or an Austrian person would.

[52:07]

And a Catholic Austrian less than a Protestant German. But... Thank you. I knew I had to... I knew you needed that. Yeah. Think of the Irish. Think of the Irish. If Germans are here and Austrians are here and Americans are here, Irish out there in the field somewhere. In terms of being on time or concentrated. So it's not right to the point now, maybe, and I almost don't allow myself to bring it up, but... Go ahead.

[53:34]

I simply would like to know, when bowing and greeting each other, what does it mean? What's happening? And why exactly you do it like this and not any other way? no I understand it's actually a good question they say that shaking hands in the west is to show that you don't have a weapon in your hand I don't know if this is true yeah definitely Oh, yeah. Really? Yeah. Taking away the helmet. And show that you are among your things. Mm-hmm. Of course, it also includes touching the other person, greeting, some kind of... It's not just showing you're not going to kill them, but... But as in responding, what is your first name?

[55:17]

No? Elizabeth. Oh, I know that name. It's my daughter. Elizabeth. Yeah. I said that you'd know a breathing practice if it was part of a yogic vision of the body. And also a Buddhist view of, wisdom view of the body and the world. And phenomena. Which, you know, here in the yogic view, I'd say, is whatness. But to see everything as interdependent, which, and I used the word earlier, active

[56:22]

awareness of the absence of permanence. So I would say active awareness of of interdependence. Which means you really feel like the unfolding of a tree into the sky. Interdependence means you're perceiving change. You're noticing change. So you notice the way the tree is formed by its heavenly relationship to the sky. You feel how it's in the sky. You feel how it's rooted. So interdependence is a feeling of things outfolding and infolding.

[57:46]

It outfolds into the world and folds the world in. That's interdependence. So it's not just an idea of ecology, oh yes, everything's interdependent. Of course I'm not speaking just to you now, I'm using you as an excuse. So you feel on each perception, one of the things you notice on each perception in noticing change, as I said, you notice ripening, Time is ripening. And each thing ripens differently. So you don't notice averaged time, you notice particular independent time of each thing.

[58:55]

That's what it means to notice change. So the interdependence, you notice, each thing flows into the world and folds the world into it. If you feel that in your breathing practice, then it's more of a Buddhist breathing practice. And that movement is the fundamental movement of Zen, of compassion and wisdom or concentration. So you feel that movement with other people. You feel yourself moving toward other people and coming more into yourself. So that's the teaching of interdependence, to actively see the change called interdependence.

[60:03]

Now, what is another thing that's real basic, like pause? is you know everything's a construct. If you don't know on every perception that everything's a construct, which also means to see impermanence, if you don't develop the wisdom habit of actively knowing that everything is a construct. you won't really be able to practice this sense of interpenetration or interdependence.

[61:12]

You won't see that construction is always in process, underway. The taciturn process inward turning person. Means you don't talk much. Has a fence around him saying keep out construction in progress. So It just doesn't make sense to notice change unless you see it as a process of construction. If you really think in terms of essences or implicit permanent identity,

[62:12]

There's nothing in it for you. There's no reason to seek. So it takes a real shift in view to see everything as a construct. Eating, breathing, being nourished by each other. We're interdependent. Interdependence is a constant activity. Okay, then another would be, and I want to emphasize, the sense of interpenetration. Now, interpenetration is interesting. This is a little riff that you don't need, but I'll go through it. Interpenetration is a shift from change and interdependence to a Mahayana view of interpenetration.

[63:35]

From change to interdependence to interpenetration. And it parallels a historical shift from Buddhism looking to India and looking to the birthplace of the Buddha. To a shift. Buddhism is in each place. And then the historical Buddha tends to be sort of forgotten. And the emphasis is your Buddha.

[64:45]

The qualities of a Buddha are Buddha, not the historical person. Okay, now this in late in Dzogchen and Mahamudra and Zen Buddhism, which are quite comparable, There's a very strong emphasis on interpenetration. That everything you need is here. You don't ever have to look even one inch in another direction. It's here. Somebody tells you, oh, there's a great teacher in the Himalayas, and he lives in a cave, and he's uncovered secret teachings, and blah, blah, blah. That's very interesting. It's very interesting. Because you don't care how good something is out there.

[66:00]

If it's not here, you don't care. So it's a radical, catalytic way to practice. You always practice as if everything needed is here. So you have to penetrate, penetrate, penetrate. Yeah, it's a Anyway, so when you have this emphasis on change, interdependence and interpenetration, you really have a Buddhist teaching. Not just a yogic world. Okay. So this goes back to your question. Because Our bowing is very definitely a yogic vision of the world.

[67:07]

The classic bow is to another person. Okay. So, if Gerald, can you bow to me and I can bow to you? And Gerald, can you bend over to me so that I can bend over to you? Now this is a monastic practice. You have to do it here in the space. And this is a monastic practice. You don't have to do it here in the space. But you can do it in the yogic space. So if Gerald and I are walking toward each other, why don't you walk over there and I'll walk here? We stop at some point. And what you're doing is you're bringing your hands together.

[68:09]

I'm sorry, I can't see. You lift up. You're in a way taking the sense of a field of energy. Ideally, you stop. You don't bow like this. You could also analyze the military salute in a similar way, in the way you straighten your back, But your feet tend to be this far apart. And you're used to the feeling of, like in kin hin, of energy coming in your body. You're used to the feeling of a field. So you pull that field together. And if you ever notice you have a spongy feeling between your hands.

[69:12]

You pull that field together and you kind of feel it and you pull it up into this, through the chakras. Yeah, to here. And then you lift it more into a kind of consciousness. We bow like this. In our lineage, we bow. We take it to here, through the chakras. And at this point, we turn our hands and lift into a kind of consciousness. With a hand this far from the nose, you'll know where every part is. There's clear comprehension of each movement. And some people are missing their mother. You see people in the Sashin. It's like Sophia. Some people are like this, you know.

[70:26]

There's a real difference in feeling when your thumbs are there. So you bring your hands up through this, through here. And again, part of the thing is that each thing has its own sector. So your arms are stuck to your body. Each part of the body is known with clear comprehension. So this part is a little separate from this. We say as if you could hold an egg. And then you constructed this. And then you throw it away in the bow. So in the bow you disappear. So the feeling is, again, if Gerald and I are walking, and we're coming to each other, I have a feeling of disappearing into something we are together.

[71:42]

Now, you would never have that in a culture which believes there's something natural. The idea of natural is an idea of permanence. At least in English. In an idea of natural, this would seem artificial. But in a yogic culture, based on everything's a construct, there's no natural way to have your hair. If you shave it, it's a style. If you have a beard, it's a style. If you... So if it's all a construct, then a construct is not artificial.

[72:47]

It's art and not artifice. Yes. So you're walking, so you construct something with the other person and let it go. It's a nice thing to do. But I can't expect other people to do it unless you're... It's a strange thing to ask people to do. But in a world in which The world is assumed to be a construct. Everything comes under observation. So you can feel that in a poet who says, a Zen teacher who's a poet.

[73:50]

He says, this afternoon I spent the day with my legs out drinking wine. It's not the sense that the legs are natural. It's the legs are another posture with the legs out, very relaxed. A Western poet would never write, oh, I was sitting with my legs out. Who the hell cares if you've got your legs out? It's less in contrast to more formal postures. So then there's degrees of formality, and the higher the degrees of formality, the more the fire element. The less degree of formality, the more the water element.

[74:53]

Now, our lunch is 12.30, right? Okay, so let's look at the parts of the body. And talking about the bow, I spoke about the parts of the body. The bridge of the practice of bringing mindfulness to the parts of the body is to create a sense of no inside and no outside. To feel the body through and through. So you really feel a kind of physical and visceral continuity in the body. when I was speaking about this the other day and Marie-Louise was translating she said I don't know the experience that you're speaking about

[76:30]

but I know what it's like to ride a horse uphill in the mud galloping up a hill and she said I found myself translating that experience in what you were saying where the physicality of the horse is inseparable from your own body as you're going up the hill. So you do, through the practice of the first foundation of mindfulness, And particularly the parts of the body, you get a real sense of solidity, of being grounded. And grounded in the muddy field itself. The world doesn't threaten you.

[78:05]

The world's part of your grounding. Because you don't have such an inside-outside distinction. Again, because you're working with the what-ness. of what you are. Okay. Now I find it useful to start usually with my hands if I do this practice. Now I've started doing this thoroughly back in the early 60s. And every couple of years I may start doing it again for a few days. But once you've done it thoroughly a few times, it's just part of being alive. And it gets deeper just through being alive.

[79:06]

And it becomes part of just sitting down to do zazen. In a way you are always going through the parts of your body. Okay, but let's say that we do it as a practice with a sequence. Now, as I said, I find it useful to start with the hands. And Sukhiroshi kind of started me on this process with the hands. Okay, so you bring attention to your hands. And I would say to each finger. And to each part of the finger. And you begin to notice, instead of worrying about 32 parts, you begin to notice whatever parts you happen to notice.

[80:31]

I think it's interesting that when the baby is born, And it was certainly the case with Sophia. The first thing they do is they say, it's a boy or girl. And the first thing they do can be, or the second thing they do is, oh, it's got ten fingers and ten toes. Somehow that's a sign that probably everything else is okay. And then after that you forget about your fingers and toes. And we particularly forget about our feet. And for most people they might as well be hoofs.

[81:32]

And the way some people wear shoes and their toes get all bent around, you can see they... They were hoofs. Yeah, so you bring your attention to whatever you want in your hands. And I think it's useful to notice each part of the finger. With five fingers and two hands and three parts to each finger, you're past 32 pretty quickly. If you want to go into nuances, you can start feeling how two, four fingers together make one unit. So that's like a unit, but that's also a unit and that's a unit and so forth.

[82:41]

So you just bring attention to your hands. And it's, you know, it was interesting for me to talk about this watching Sophia because she's trying to bring tension and intention into each finger. And for the first couple of months, she couldn't do it, really. She could just bump you with her hand, but she couldn't touch you with her hand. And recently she's actually able to, like Paul gave her a little black sheep, she's able to reach out and take hold of such a thing intentionally. So in a somewhat similar way now, you're trying to not just use your hand intentionally,

[83:45]

You kind of want to take intention out of your hand. Just fill your hand with awareness, attention. Attention, not intention. Okay. Then if you want to continue this practice, once you get a feel for your hands, And whatever parts you want to identify. And I've said you can also start identifying like this part of your hand. And this part of your hand. And it feels different. Each part feels different. And it's particularly the case when you start feeling the center of the hand.

[84:56]

It has some feeling that's bigger than just the physicality of the hand. So if you're thinking about who, you wouldn't notice this. If you think about what, Yeah. You feel that there's what plus something. It's not just stuff. It's stuff that's alive. And there's a different feeling from the tips of the finger to the middle part of the finger and so forth. And those little things are what you begin to notice when consciousness, when you don't have an observer but a noticer, And you can bring, once you get a feeling for some part of the body,

[86:02]

You can bring that up your arm. This is a little different feeling than this. That's where you test a baby's bottle, which we haven't done yet. I remember, though. Yes. the bottle yeah you squirt a little milk on it and if it's but Marie-Louise is still nursing so this isn't a problem yet and I tried nursing but it didn't work or Marie-Louise I mean Sophia tried but it didn't work I felt like a failure, but... I'm trying to compensate. Okay. So then once you get a feeling, you can start moving up the body. And the part of the tradition is to notice the parts that end in the skin. Yeah, it doesn't say the skin.

[87:38]

It says notice the parts that end in the skin. Because this part of the body, sort of the limit of it is here in the skin. Now, you're really getting to know your body. But not know it conceptually, but know it from inside. And you usually have to start with the outside definitions. But as you can feel your body, you can start feeling parts. If your fingers are flexible and fluid, you tend to feel each of the three parts. And the knuckles and the bones in the hand. And if you know the four elements, you can begin to feel the bones more clearly in their flexibility and in their solidity.

[88:46]

And if you know the four elements, you can begin to feel the bones more clearly in their flexibility and in their solidity. You asked why I do it this way. Because I actually have damaged this shoulder. So it's not so easy for me to go like this. It's easier for me to go like this. So you don't have to imitate that unless your shoulder hurts. And what I'm trying to do is find the path in the various postures possible here where it hurts least. Because I'm trying to give the parts that hurt a chance to rest. Okay.

[89:56]

So then I find usually from the shoulders you can go inside the body. And the easiest things to then begin to notice are your lungs. And again, I'm telling you my experience, but you can do whatever you'd like. I think the right lung is easiest to notice. And you can feel its movement. And that's the air element and the space of the lung. And if you start feeling the space of the lung, you can actually feel it up into your shoulder. And down into your gut.

[91:00]

This is your gut. You can feel your lung way down to here. And then you can switch. Now you know the right lung. Every time you do this, you get a more thorough and clear feeling of an organ of the body. And from the point of view of healing yourself, for some reason, in my experience, it's certainly the case, If you can have a clear comprehension of an organ, a clear feeling of an organ, you can feel its functioning and its limits. And the traditional teaching is you know its delimitations. You know where the lung ends and where it begins.

[92:04]

It makes a much better target for healing power. the more you can have a clear feeling, then you can direct healing energy toward a particular organ. So this practice really helps you maintain your health. And digestive energy is a fire element. If you have too much fire element, you often have stomach problems. So this combination of the four elements and the parts is a kind of medicine practice. Yeah, and you can tell when your body's changing inside, when something's wrong or something.

[93:14]

Because you get to know all the parts and then you can start to feel if they're different. So then you switch, now that you know the right lung, you can switch to the left lung. Because it's pretty much the same. Yeah, but there's something funny right here. And when you know the left lung clearly, you can feel something funny is here. It's not the lung. And then you can begin to feel the heart. And it's helpful to feel the heart by knowing what's beside the heart. And the heart is like the palm of the hand. It's a big stuff plus. So you begin to feel the shape of the heart is not just the physical organ.

[94:31]

It's movement. It both moves and it also has a spatial...

[94:36]

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