So I assume it's Saturday afternoon and we split up into small groups. And if Roger comes down and gives us a topic, then we get one. And if he doesn't come down and doesn't give us anything, then we have to give up our time. That's why I suggest that we make four groups. Also wir machen am Samstagnachmittag immer Kleingruppen, um einfach über das zu sprechen und uns auszutauschen, was wir gehört haben, damit wir das ein bisschen verdauen können miteinander. Und ja, das machen wir heute auch. Und wir bilden die Gruppen, indem wir durchzählen bis vier und dann gehen immer die Einser in eine Gruppe, die Zweier, Dreier und die Vierer. So, Vicky, what we usually do on Saturday afternoon, and maybe we do it this afternoon too, is we go into small groups and just either Roshi gives us a topic or we have to find one.

[01:10]

And the way we do it is we count to four. To make this group not... And maybe we can have an English speaking group. And we will see. We have small groups already.

[02:18]

No, we're not yet ready. What should be the topic? I thought you didn't want... I thought you were resisting that. With interrogation. With interrogation. They have excused themselves. Gerhard has an appointment in St. Paul. And they will be back tomorrow for the seminar. All of them. Richard also has a meeting in the afternoon. Oh, okay. How we deal in everyday life with the talisman as a help in our practice.

[03:43]

So I quoted Chandra Kirti saying that we take as a point of departure the contemplation of the body. And it is obviously a place we can always start because there will always be something we could call the body with us. And when we have a question like, what is the body? Maybe one answer could be if a teacher in a doksan said, what is the body?

[05:14]

An acceptable sort of Zen answer. might be the movement of the body. In other words, to say that I can't know what the body is exactly, but I can know what I notice of it. Nor I suppose you could say, my noticing is developing. Because body then isn't a thing or a named thing, but a developing experience through noticing. Now there's another statement we can find in Buddhism.

[06:18]

That the Bodhisattva does not contemplate the physical body. the bodhisattva contemplates the physical body in relationship to the inner attentional body. Then if you're a practitioner, you might say, It was complicated enough. You didn't have to say that, oh Bodhisattva. But a statement like that, kind of like, then you have to start thinking about what is this? What does that mean? Yeah, there's a phrase which occurs in Koans now and then.

[07:36]

This is the ordinary food and drink of the Patchville monk. So, meaning that anybody who sits regularly would notice these things. So one of the ordinary food and drink awarenesses of the Pastoral monk or an adept practitioner? Is the an experience, the experience or an experience? of inner attentional space and outer attentional space.

[08:39]

And, you know, if you're sunbathing, say, There would be inner attentional space perhaps, things happening on the beach or the rooftops or wherever. And an outer attentional space is shaped by the senses. Primarily by the senses. Okay. But if you take a phrase like just this, Nurdas.

[09:45]

Sounds like the name of some guru. That's Nurdas. Ramdas, Nurdas, you know. Yeah. So if I'm experiencing outer attentional space right now, if I say, while I'm noticing outer attentional space, I say to myself, just this, the outer attentional space may be affected to some extent. Or it changes my feeling of the outer attentional space.

[10:50]

And if I, let's say, for example, I close my eyes, Which makes more dramatic perhaps a little bit the difference between outer of attentional space and inner attentional space. So if I say now I'm in the midst of the experience of an inner attentional space. No, and of course I'm using the word attentional intentionally because the dynamic and consistency of attention is, you know, the ordinary food and drink, et cetera.

[12:13]

Now, in the midst of this inner attentional space, which is not shaped by the senses, or is not shaped by the senses, by sensorial information from outside the body, It's shaped by some kind of sensorial feeling. I can experiment by hearing into this sensorial space. And it definitely feels like a space.

[13:28]

And feels like a space in which things can appear. It feels like a space I can sort of look around in without looking around. Now the outer sensorial space is formed primarily by voluntarily noticed appearances. Perhaps various people as here, or a window, a cushion, etc.

[14:29]

Which I notice as a background and can notice as a foreground. But the inner attentional space is more articulated occasionally or continuously through involuntary appearances. I can make, I can generate appearances if I want, by intention. But the more I move toward an unstructured inner attentional space.

[15:38]

And attention isn't structuring it, it's just allowing me primarily to notice it. And it's not clear that there's a me-ness that notices it. But there's some experience of me-ness that I can notice, explore. There is some experience of I-pronoun thinkingness. In other words, I can have some feeling about this inner attentional space.

[16:40]

And that feeling is an agency we can call I or me or something like that. But zazen gives you the chance to explore the degree to which the inner attentional space seems to belong to someone. But the more the inner attentional space is something like a dream space, a dreaming space, And what makes dreaming space so interesting and something worth investigating sometimes is the contents of a dream are largely involuntary.

[17:49]

There's a moth over there fluttering with dust coming off its wings. And whenever I look at it, it turns into a hooded figure. Now that is an involuntary image. Who thought that one up? So if there's involuntary content to the inner attentional space, Who is the who of inner attentional space? And we want a more clear and outer attentional space. Who is the who of inner attentional space? Now, if someone, some agency, brings attention to the spine in this inner attentional state,

[19:25]

And we bring an upward moving attention to the spine. This changes the quality of the inner attentional space. Or if I bring attention to the breath it changes the inner attentional space. Just if I focus attention through the words just this, inner attentional space changes under the attention of just this. Now, if in the midst of the medium of this inner attentional space, I begin to do some kind of discursive thinking,

[20:54]

The kind of inner attention space kind of rolls up like being rolled up into a rug of thinking. And the body feels less permeated now by the kind of... clarity or brightness of inner attentional space, which is not discursive thinking. And so the inner attentional space, you can feel a change, feel what it's like when it changes into consciousness. And then, but then when you unroll the rug, the carpet of consciousness, maybe you can fly on it, or at least it's a kind of awareness. Yeah, a wider feeling. So now maybe you could say, what do I call this wider feeling?

[22:47]

It's not consciousness. Now I know where the boundaries of consciousness are. Maybe that's what Pekaroshi means when he says awareness. Oh, but that's just a word. He didn't know what he was talking about. I have a direct experience with this awareness which I don't want to make. But didn't I just call it awareness? And now I'm bringing attention into that field, gray field, silvery field of awareness. Attention functions within awareness in a different way than it functions within consciousness. Now it becomes obvious there's some usefulness to noticing the boundaries of things.

[23:52]

Because there was clearly a boundary between awareness and consciousness. Consciousness appeared, awareness disappeared. And with the agency of attention, By agency of attention I mean intended attention. I can affect both awareness and consciousness. And I can affect the involuntary appearances that appear. And I find I can even, with attention, bring voluntary appearances into the field of involuntary appearances.

[25:28]

Now the person who sits regularly has a regular zazen experience, practice. Would to some degree intuitively do this properly. But now I'm pointing it out, a kind of naming it. I'm pointing it out because a Buddhist text pointed out that the Bodhisattva does not contemplate the physical body. The bodhisattva contemplates the physical body in relation to the inner attentional body. So now I don't just notice breath and heartbeat and... proprioceptive and introspective activity.

[26:58]

Now I notice when I'm doing body work or sitting down or yoga or zazen or walking, I notice how the inner attentional space is affected by my walking or my yogic practice. And I notice which bodily activity lessens conscious activity. And which bodily activity is most likely to happen through awareness or likely to generate awareness? So if I do Tai Chi, for instance, I can begin the movements from inner attentional space instead of outer attentional space.

[28:17]

And now that this inner attentional space as a part of the contemplation of the physical body may then allow me to develop this practice more explicitly. And by mentioning it now, mentioning it, the sutras mention it, I'm now mentioning it within our Sangha. And now that while you may do this intuitively already, the fact that I've pointed it out in this perhaps talismanic way, we may find ourselves on the same inner attentional page.

[29:44]

Even may find ourselves in some kind of resonant physical body. Okay. Oh dear. Thanks for translating all that. So, shall we take a break and then have small groups?

[30:47]

And again, are there any other suggestions or topics? I mean, let's not have the topic in our attentional space. Let's do objects. No? Well, I'll let you guys decide. But what a treasure this inner attentional space is. And how it can begin to be our company, our partner, our companion.

[31:50]

And can begin to be the friend and hand-holding friend of consciousness. Okay.

[32:02]

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