I'm sitting on your Bodhisattva deed. One in a year. It feels okay, one a year. Now that's a positive outlook. One in a year, that's a good outlook. He regrets it already. We can switch at any point if you want. Good for me. Oh yeah? Well, we'll see. So is Superman a bodhisattva? Also, ist Superman ein Bodhisattva? I mean, all these stories, Robin Hood, Tarzan, maybe you don't read Robin Hood and Tarzan.

[01:11]

I mean, all these stories. Pippi Longstocking. Robin Hood and Tarzan and Pippi Longstrom. I don't know if you read that. Longstrom Sattva. Longstrom Sattva. You know, one day I noticed Sophia had on socks of two different colors. I said, your socks don't match. Who do you think you are? I am Pippi Longstocking. I guess Pippi Longstocking wears socks of different colors or something. Yeah, anyway, what I'm getting at is every do-gooder, every person who tries to do good is Superman rescuing people, etc. He's every story where It turns on whether a person is altruistic or not, etc.

[02:23]

Is that then, is that what a bodhisattva is? Yeah, maybe it is in some way. But if it But if it... But if it... How can I say? But if it is and also is not, or is and extends beyond, et cetera, you know what I mean. Then the... then the word bodhisattva probably has some meaning. Otherwise, the distinction makes a difference.

[03:26]

What is the distinction? Yeah. And certainly, when you add the idea that it's not just an intent, but it's a purpose, path to that intent or a path through that intent by way of or it's a practice. Okay. Now I don't really know enough about Christianity Except growing up in a culture implicitly Christian.

[04:39]

And going to Sunday school. And I was not always considered such a good Sunday school goer. I was supposed to be in the kind of choir, but one day I wasn't there. And then the bells in the church tower started to ring. What started to ring? The church? The bells in the church tower. And I, instead of going into the church and singing during service, I climbed up the tower and started ringing the bells. It seemed like an interesting thing to do. Like a big meeting, and should they tell my parents? I was just ringing the bell. Anyway. But I've never practiced, certainly the way I practice Buddhism, Christianity.

[06:08]

And so I don't really know. I mean, when people talk about Buddhism and I see that they don't practice, it's clear in the superficiality of their views of Buddhism They don't understand what Buddhism is about as a practice. So I'm not going to make that sin of speaking about Christianity when I haven't practiced it. But we still have to think about what we mean by love and Christian values in relationship to our practice of Buddhism. Values we've internalized. No, I didn't wait for you to tell me something about whether Superman was a Bodhisattva or not.

[07:30]

What do you think? Any ideas about it? I guess Superman doesn't exist in German. Strictly speaking, Bodhisattva raises the idea of enlightenment. That's probably not the content of Superman's deeds. But he had kryptonite. He had kryptonite. Do you translate that yourself? Yes, when the ideal of Bodhisattva has to do with it, you can say it in German. He just repeated his... Okay, in German, in Deutsch, yeah. Well, the word for... The word that you translate, used to translate compassion, is what?

[08:38]

Mitgefühl? Which means to feel with? Compassion means to, in English, to suffer with. Also, dieses Wort, das wir im Deutschen haben, mitgefühl, nämlich mit, mitfühlen, mit etwas, jemandem fühlen. Das Wort compassion im Englischen bedeutet eigentlich mitleiden, also mit etwas leiden. The com part is with, obviously, and the passion is like the passion of Christ, the suffering of Christ. Der com-Teil, das bedeutet mit, ganz offensichtlich, und passion, das ist die Passion, also wir haben ja auch Christi Passion, das Leiden. Yes, Neil? We have this word, mid-light, with suffering. But we always talk about it in a way that if there's still much ego involved in how you experience the world, you have mid-light with someone and you suffer with them, but it's your personality which suffers and you sort of go down with them really.

[09:40]

We'll go down together? This is real loyalty. Yeah, but you can't help it, because you're in his system. I see. That's what you've done. So we always differentiate it between compassion and mitleid und mitgefühl, and mitgefühl was more of what we let it turn. We're not so much ego-involved or no ego-involved helping others, but what else is necessary. In other words, that's sort of sex. You know how to say it in German, I believe. Sorry. Now, whether these differences between Deutsch and English make a difference, I can't tell.

[10:45]

But if you think it makes a difference, I'd like to hear during the seminar ways in which you think the difference between Deutsch and English makes a difference. So anyone else want to add to this? I think the second word in English would be pity. The difference between compassion and being pitiful. Pitiful is pretty negative in English. It can be, yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's, I see. Yeah. I see. Yeah. Can you have a mid-light crisis? Yes.

[12:00]

No, just one second. I mean, the compassion is with experiencing what the other experiences. I think that mitgefühl in German is more like experiencing with, to experience what the other person experiences and experiencing it with them. Well, that's really very similar to compassion in how it's used. Empathetic, yes. Yes, okay. rather, as has become visible from modern Neurological research, that there are mirror neurons that simply separate the suffering of the other from the brain.

[13:22]

I've always understood mitgefühl, so compassion, not so much in an empathic way, but more in the sense that it has also been examined through modern neuroscience, where they found out that there are these mirror neurons. Mirror neurons, yeah. That represent the suffering of another person. Stop! And I always thought that compassion is like you represent the pain of another person and also represent that in your body.

[14:32]

And that through this representation... Ah, okay, without being tangled up. Without being tangled up and the practice of... Was hast du das Christentum noch gesagt? Sagst du es einfach noch mal? Du hast gesagt die christliche Praxis und dann... Die christliche Praxis bietet an, dass man eben halt diese Kruzifizierung, dieses Leiden... And the Christian practice offers that you go into this crucification and... Is that a word? Yes, it is a word. And experience that with and through that become a good person. Yeah. We have nuances here, you know, like, I'm going to love you whether you like it or not.

[15:38]

Or I'm going to love you if you are ready for me to love you. Yeah, something like that. Yeah. So you're suggesting in a way that Buddhist compassion is somewhat more detached than the idea of Christian love? You don't get so entangled? Mm-hmm. Yes, girl. One aspect that I also see behind your question is, is Batman or Robin Hood a good person? When it's about justice and we say that the generation or establishment of justice, we then would say that's a good person because that person is fair or their actions are fair.

[17:10]

It is not necessarily this differentiation that Nico pointed out, whether this is a way, also an inner way, but it is first of all a, so to speak, reconstruction of Gerechtigkeit im Sinne von, es ist wieder gleich, es ist wieder ein Gleichgewicht. And it's not necessarily the distinction that Nico pointed out about whether it's a path or also an internal path, but it's first of all a re-establishment of, or an establishment of equality and balance. Und das wird oft als gute Persönlichkeit, And these kind of people are often seen as good persons. Okay, yeah. Watching out for others. Watching out for others. So maybe watching out for others is an aspect that is part of being a Bodhisattva.

[18:27]

Maybe not just looking out for others, but also looking Maybe into others and also from their side, as you sometimes say, so you're having a feeling for how they're seeing. From their side. Yeah, how they're seeing. Yeah. Yes. I think the practice of superman or batman don't come out of wisdom. And I think for the Bodhisattva, the practice of the Bodhisattva probably always definitely rooted in wisdom and the idea of emptiness or sameness and impermanence. This is the basis. And I don't think that this is the basis of superman and batman. Do you know that, have you heard, really read about... Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, Doctor Who,

[19:34]

Yes, go ahead. I think that the basis of the action of Spurman and Bettman does not come from the wisdom, from the ideas of emptiness or transience or equality, and that this is the difference, that the action of the good, [...] So you're saying that in addition to feeling with, along with, et cetera, knowledge should be part of the practice. The aura of Avalokiteshvara is a thousand arms. The aura of Avadokiteshvara, that's a thousand arms.

[21:07]

Okay, someone, yes. It just occurred to me when Gerda said that once I think that we feel a deep compassion or a deep empathic compassion, maybe that's one of the basic qualities, one of the abilities that we have as humans. When he just spoke, I also thought that feeling with somebody is also a very basic human capacity that we have. But that a practice... But that practice helps to deal with that. To deal with it and I learn how to be with that. Yeah, okay. How?

[22:15]

I stopped doing this. I'm doing this now. So that you won't say how to me anymore. Oh, yeah. Did you see that in the movies when two Indians meet each other? How? Yeah, the movies when I was a kid anyway. One aspect that I also find important when we talk about the bodhisattva practice of compassion in comparison to supermen or superheroes in general is also the experience of compassion. This is also an experience that does something with us. When I look at the films, this experience is never put in the foreground, as far as I remember. You can see it in someone's eyes. with someone, feels with someone. This whole aspect, how Mitgefühl can organize the perception, is not clear in the film.

[23:21]

And Mitgefühl is, I think, also for those who experience it and feel it, a liberating, a way of liberation. That's my impression. So one aspect that I see as a difference between superheroes and the Bodhisattva path is also the experience of compassion itself. But in these movies, the heroic aspect is never really... presented as being based on that person having developed the experience of compassion also as a, well, I think also a liberating experience because there's so much in it that is also information about how we and the world exist. And on the bodhisattva path, we are also, I think, really developing this experience, as the person who has that experience.

[24:25]

Yeah. Well, the recent movies, I haven't seen them, but I read reviews of them, of the most recent Batman movie and the most recent Spider-Man movie, I believe, present them coming to their doing good through suffering. Also, if we do take both and and compassion is meaning suffering with or feeling with, Can you feel with if you don't have feelings? Okay. Well, I mean, I would say that it'd be hard to make a case for Superman, the Man of Steel, as a bodhisattva because he's really from another planet and he's has powers that he can do you know take airplanes out of the air and stuff this is probably you can't think of him as a as a bodhisattva

[26:00]

But Batman, he saw his parents killed in a shootout, supposedly, and so forth. And so it's because of that he decided to, you know, I heard there was a line in one of the movies where he says, Batman says, John Wayne says, is that his name? Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne says, John Wayne. It's the same. It's all the same. Bruce Wayne says, waning and waxing. Bruce Wayne says, Any guy who dresses up like a bat must have issues. Making fun of himself.

[27:01]

You had that expression, must have issues, psychological problems or something. What if I wish I had a costume here? I'd love to appear in the next session. Darth Vader, that's the other side. That's the dark side. But these are... You know, let's take Robin Hood and Tarzan.

[28:16]

Because I think these really are archetypes. Yeah, Tarzan is somebody who's, you know, operating outside the system. who can survive in the jungle. Yeah. Now, is to operate outside societal values or societal structures part of being a Bodhisattva? And Robin Hood lives in Sherwood Forest and is an outlaw. He turned his family farm into a center for outlaws. Are we outlaws somehow? This is the family farm, which he turned into a center for outlaws. Now, those archetypes are right behind what Obama said last night.

[29:33]

I'm not part of Washington. Ich bin nicht Teil von Washington. We have to have a new kind of person who solves the problems. You can't solve it with old ways of thinking. Wir brauchen eine neue Art von Mensch, der diese Probleme löst, weil man es nicht mit dem althergebrachten Denken lösen kann. Robin is going to rob from the rich and give to the poor. And Obama very clearly last night said, I'm going to rob from the rich and give to the middle class, not really the new poor. Really, conceptually, there isn't much difference in these archetypes. Yeah, and Bush robbed from the middle class and gave to his tribe, which is the rich.

[30:44]

So anyway, I'm just bringing up these archetypes in their comic form, you know. Comics, the word, anyway, that's another. Cartoons I was gonna say are sketches for big paintings. Original cartoons. Do you have the same word, cartoon, in German? I always say, yeah, we have cartoon in German. Meaning Correggio's drawing for a big painting. Well, when Rembrandt does a first sketch, in English that's called a cartoon.

[31:46]

That he bases the painting on. So cartoons of archetypes are often the basis for initial grasping of an idea, yes. I think that's from the root cartoon from what we see in the carton. He did it on paper before. I'm sure it's the same, yeah. Are the cartoons for what, these archetypes? Are the basis for, are one way of expressing these archetypes. They are kind of simple versions. So we can think about what would be an archetype of a cartoon of a bodhisattva. I don't want to talk about Barack Obama particularly more.

[33:15]

But he's created a tremendous societal and global responsibility for himself. Because he is genuinely and rather convincingly presenting himself as a good person. And if he turns out not to be, it's going to disillusion an awful lot of people. Or if he turns out in the end to be corrupted, it will be a big disillusionment to a lot of people. So it's a very precious and yet fragile, fundamental, precious and fragile public posture he's taking. So the same is true for us who are practicing.

[34:34]

We take on, whether we like it or not, in the eyes of others and in our own eyes, an attitude toward the world and toward our practice and toward others that builds expectations in others. So we create a mutual space. But then can we live up to that mutual space? Can we live within that mutual space? Well, how do you define a bodhisattva so it doesn't crush you?

[35:36]

Because the expectation of the mutual space is in the end becomes artificial or overbearing or something. Now, what time are we supposed to have the lunch? Mostly, most years we do it at 12.30 or 1 or... You don't remember? You're the organizer. You're our archetype. All right, well... Yeah? Yeah, but this is now I... In the morning, maybe.

[36:57]

Yeah. Anyway, we'll see. I'll stop talking a little bit and then we'll have lunch. Okay. In... We're talking about... feeling with or knowing knowledge or values or wisdom being at the base of our feeling with or the structure of our feeling with. Now, do you have the word... What's your word for conscience in German? Gewissen. And is that related to consciousness? It's related to knowledge. Uh-huh. That's interesting.

[38:08]

Because conscience... Gehwissen? Well, wissen is in there, and wissen is knowledge, but it's in terms of its meaning. Wisdom as well as knowledge? Wisdom. Is wissen wisdom? No, that's weisheit. Wissen is direct knowledge, and gehwissen is as a word in there, so etymologically. Is it related to conscience? You did something knowingly? Yeah, in terms of its semantics, but in terms of just the... Etymology. Anyway, in English, conscience once meant consciousness. And conscience in English means something like consciousness without self-deception. Okay, so I would say that consciousness has two uses in English. I mean, conscience has two uses in English. One is, the most basic is, consciousness without self-deception.

[39:10]

Das Grundlegendste, der grundlegendste Gebrauch ist Bewusstsein ohne Selbsttäuschung. And it's turned into something like internalized or embodied social values. Und das wird dann verwandelt oder umgewandelt in so etwas wie verinnerlichte soziale Werte. Communal values. Yeah, so I would say that when I was a kid at least the main value was do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Do you have the same Yeah, but I can't remember how exactly it's . OK. I always feel like I'm ready to ride a horse.

[40:30]

OK. I always, as a kid, wondered if it also could mean don't do unto others what you don't want them to do unto you. That's the German version. I see I was all ready to come. But they're rather different in feeling. Now, I would say that compassion in Buddhism is more like something like creating the space where we can look at each other. Where we can look at each other face to face.

[41:34]

And that's Ivan Ilch's view of of Christian love, actually. And he has this very strong feeling that the institutionalized good Samaritan is not Christian love. The official social services, hospitals, etc., that just take care of people because you're supposed to, that's good to do, but it's not love. And Dogen makes all his teaching, turns on the face-to-face connection between people. I just misspelled Dogen.

[43:00]

You misspelled it. And I said dragon. Dragon? No, like drugs. Oh, dragon. Well, for some of us it is kind of a drug. And, you know, that's why when I see, you know, taste shows on Dogen on the Internet, I think, Well, I can't say it's bad, but to me this is a face-to-face activity we're in. No matter how much you get mental enjoyment and understanding from reading Dogen, Egal wie viel mentale Freude man sich daraus beziehen kann, dass man Dogen liest.

[44:21]

The mutual space created by two people practicing Dogen's way is not the same. So I'm really partly speaking about this space in which we can know each other face to face. As the kind of quintessential expression or basis for compassion. als eine Art Quintessenz oder als ein grundlegender Ausdruck für Mitgefühl. Okay, now one more kind of etymological discussion and then we'll have lunch. Noch eine etymologische Diskussion und dann gibt's Mittagspause. Yeah. The word for bowels, your bowels, your small intestine. Das Wort für den Dünndarm

[45:22]

I guess originally it meant sausage. Versed, maybe versed, I don't know. Das bedeutete so viel wie Wurst. Now, in the early Greek times, classical Greek times, the bowels were thought to be the seat of emotions. In der klassischen griechischen Zeit wurde gedacht, dass die Gedärme der Sitz der Emotionen sind. Okay, now the question is, is that seat of emotion a... I'm sorry to make such small distinctions. A receiver of emotions or a source of emotions. So I'll just run through this and try to make a point. Okay.

[46:26]

Later this becomes in Greek times the source of violent emotions. While in Hebrew it becomes a source of tender emotions, kindness, friendliness, etc., while in Hebrew it becomes the source for gentle emotions, for friendliness and kindness and so on? Those are big distinctions. I mean, they're small distinctions and yet big distinctions. They look here, but they get big out there. And George Lakoff and, I don't know, the other author, he co-wrote a book about metaphors. He makes convincingly clear to me that language is rooted in metaphors.

[47:34]

And metaphors are rooted in the body, in bodily postures, bodily actions. So it actually makes a difference whether these words, where they're rooted in the body. Okay, now the word... The original word, which means your small intestine, is translated in the Bible, the Christian Bible, first as bowels. And then it's translated later as compassion. And then the final versions we use, I believe, it's translated as heart.

[49:02]

Now we have this idea that the location of emotions or where we feel emotions turns into first bowels and then compassion and then heart. That's a serious, I mean significant rather, movement, change. And there's a big difference whether you feel from here as heart or feel from your bowels. And perhaps our feeling, Christian or otherwise, of love is more here. Certainly, Valentin would say, no, excuse me, I can't. Valentine's Day, et cetera.

[50:13]

Certainly all of our, you know, love, heart, drawings of hearts, et cetera, it's all up here. Sorry, I can't resist with that wonderful name you have. But to feel with, not feel for, probably is here, I think. And a shift from to feel with to feel for is a big difference. You know, I think, I'm not saying one's better than the other. Both is probably best, good, better, best.

[51:13]

Yeah. But I think we have to, you know, this is one way we can sort of begin to notice, where do we feel things? And I think we need to explain we can explore this more precisely through meditation than any other way. I mean, sometimes we have tremendous pain and hurt in our heart. And most of us do sometimes. But certainly other emotions upset our stomach. We feel unsettled in our stomach. We belch and fart. It just doesn't feel good. We don't want to eat. Oh, I'm sorry to make you say words like that.

[52:21]

That's perfectly fine. I consider them as your words. Oh, you... Oh! Okay. Um... So if we study ourselves, we can notice what kind of feelings do we feel in our stomach and what kind of feelings do we feel in our chest. And what feelings connect us or separate us from others? So all I'm saying is there's a bodily sense to love and compassion. And this human space that we arise in and live within is also a bodily space.

[53:31]

And how does the Bodhisattva inhabit, develop or express this bodily human space? Okay. That's enough for this morning, I think. Now it's 12.30, one or two. And to find restaurants and do all that kind of stuff, we need a couple hours, is that right? Three hours? Two, three, four? Two. Two maps. Maximum two and a half. Two. Two hours or two o'clock? Well, it's 12.30, and by the time we sit for a few minutes, maybe we come back at, what's on, 1, 3 o'clock?

[54:55]

2.30? Too late? 2.30? Okay, we come back at 2.30. 2.30. Well, let's see. I think we're only going to sit a few minutes, but I never know. I think we're only sitting for a few minutes, but I know that...

[55:21]

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