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Embodied Freedom in Zen Practice

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Seminar_The_Buddhist_Understanding_of_Freedom

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This talk focuses on the Buddhist understanding of freedom, particularly how it relates to enlightenment experiences and Zen practice. The discussion distinguishes between incremental and sudden enlightenment, highlighting "plateau experiences" such as calmness, equanimity, and non-self-referenced observations. It underscores the importance of embracing a "no gaining idea" mindset, focusing on practice without a results-oriented approach. The role of physical posture in Zen, intentions in practice, and the nature of "enactment" within Zen, such as through koans and phrases like "heaven and earth and I share the same root," are explored as methods for integrating the conditions of enlightenment into everyday life.

Referenced Works and Philosophical Concepts:

  • Maslow's Plateau Experiences: Highlights experiences like calmness and equanimity during meditation, suggesting they hint at self-actualization or enlightenment moments.

  • No Gaining Idea: A key teaching of Suzuki Roshi, emphasizing the importance of practicing without the desire for enlightenment, encouraging a practice focused on moment-to-moment awareness.

  • Bodhidharma's Teachings:

  • "Bring me your mind, and I will free it." An anecdote signifying the recognition of inherent freedom within.
  • "Emptiness, not holiness." Reflecting the Zen perspective to avoid fixation on concepts, thus experiencing genuine freedom.

  • Diamond Sutra: Referenced in the context of the Sixth Patriarch's enlightenment, emphasizing letting the mind flow without dwelling on anything.

  • Koans: Described as "enlightenment enactments," used to embody and integrate enlightenment insight into daily practice and understanding.

  • Shikantaza: This Zen practice is defined by stopping intentional control over the mind, focusing instead on correct posture and letting the mind settle naturally.

AI Suggested Title: Embodied Freedom in Zen Practice

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And in Maslow's distinction, these designations, these would be called plateau experiences. Plateau. Now, recognitions includes things like calmness equanimity gaps I'll explain what that means. bliss, connectedness, intimacy, and we could name others.

[01:22]

And that means that there are experiences you have in meditation, for example, Where you suddenly feel a gap, a break with your usual way of experiencing things. Or suddenly you find, as Beate's dream suggested, that you no longer get angry. Or you just notice you start feeling at some point good all the time. That falls under equanimity. Or you have a deep, deep period in a meditation period, say, of stillness. And this may would also often include a non, how can I say it, self-referenced

[02:30]

In other words, you have an experience, but it doesn't function through yourself. Your self isn't involved with, oh, I'm having this experience or something. There's an observer, but there's no self involved in the observation. Does that make sense? So this, all right, that recognition. Then we have ships. Yeah. So in this, these are all experiences in the Buddhist understanding of how enlightenment occurs. Das sind alles Erfahrungen im buddhistischen Verständnis, wie sich Erleuchtung ereignet.

[03:54]

And shifts is, there's a turn in change in direction in your life. Und diese Veränderungen bedeuten, es ist ein Wechsel in der Ausrichtung deines Lebens. It's like the decision to practice would be such a change. Die Entscheidung zu praktizieren wäre zum Beispiel ein solcher Wechsel. Mm-hmm. And I suppose that we could add here a series or repetition, let's say a series of experiences. Okay. A series from the experience before or totally new one? Various new ones or similar. Usually it's always never exactly the same. But it's like sometimes all of this happens for some people, depending on their energy, pretty much all at once.

[05:06]

But that's not necessarily better, and often this is better. There's a series of recognitions. You suddenly feel there's no self-referential experience. Or you feel some deep concentration which leaves you in a slightly new world. Now, Buddhist practice is meant to... Zen practice is designed to create the opportunities for these things. Yeah. Now, any questions? Yeah. Last night you made it sound like there is no gradual enlightenment.

[06:23]

To me, there are missions and the shifts, like if they're not all at once. To me, that's a gradual development. Yeah, it depends. But my experience is it's actually incremental, not gradual. Incremental, it goes like this. It's not like that. It's not some kind of progress like that. It's little jumps, little leaps. Because the nature of a real enlightenment recognition is that at that moment it's different than before. So it's not... Like some people will say to me, as someone in this seminar did, but I hear it quite often, people I've been practicing with quite a while They say I suddenly or now I find I understand what you're talking about in a way I didn't before.

[07:39]

At some point, lots of things start making sense. You'd heard similar things before, but they didn't quite make sense. But now they make sense, not just one or two things, but quite a few different things start making sense. You hear the teaching. And that's in this area of recognition. And it's also in the area of enactment. It's interesting, there's no German word for an act. We can use the word enact, but... It's interesting, isn't it, how languages even, if English is a German dialect, still there's still areas which are touched on differently.

[09:04]

And it's interesting because everyone knows what enactment means. There is no actual German word for it. Okay. Yes, Mark. I think it would be continuous. You wouldn't be able to recognize it. That's right. If it's gradual, you couldn't recognize it. That's right. That's a good point. So what is meant by enlightenment is always sudden, even if it's incremental. Now, if I'm teaching Zen well enough, what I say should... something should just... Yeah, that makes sense. Something should touch areas of your experience that you know but don't often relate to.

[10:32]

And something should require a leap for you to understand. So when I'm practicing with you and when both in what I say and how the schedule of a sâshin and practice period and seminar are constructed and how the sangha spends time together are all meant to create the condition for these kind of experiences.

[11:39]

So you can become more free or free of your self-regarding thoughts and your obstructing viewpoints. And the impedings, viewpoints. Hindrances, yes. Hindering viewpoints. And my experience is that all of you have these kinds of recognitions. And some of you have this kind of experience.

[12:57]

And some of you have this kind of experience. Practice is to put these together so that they begin to open each other up and mature in your life. And a statement like no gaining idea. Which was a favorite statement of Suzuki Roshi. Which is, you know, you can have a gaining idea to realize the experience of no gaining idea. but you bring yourself under put yourself under the dominion dominion is of such a phrase and you you hold it before you

[14:15]

And this eventually is likely to release you into the experience. This is a kind of an enactment, particular to Zen, fairly particular at least. So we have no gaining an idea. Which means no idea of achieving enlightenment. Or just what I'm looking at you, if I can have a state of mind which isn't involved with whether I'm doing this well or poorly or anything. And I can feel the difference. Sometimes I want to do this a little better or something like that. Sometimes I'm not satisfied with how I'm presenting something.

[15:43]

But I'm working with the feeling of having no gaining idea. And I've been doing this long enough so I know the feeling of the mind in which there's no gaining idea. So, you know, when you steer a ship, I was in the merchant ring. When I was younger. It's not the army. You just work on breakers and things. And when you steer the ship, you have to keep going. Actually, a ship goes like this across the ocean. You can't go straight because the waves are always knocking at sea. You're always... That's how you kind of come back to no gaining idea mind.

[16:51]

So if you have this sense of either the feel of it or the idea But your usual mind is deigning ideas. So your usual mind is here. But you hold this as a feeling. And you know, moment after moment, you're here, but you're holding this as a feeling. And if you do that with enough simple repetition, And you hold it because you have a kind of vision, a feeling of the importance of this.

[18:07]

Or the clarity of it. But it also means you just keep accepting this too. At some point, you shift up. And that's what enactment is. And the koans are very thoroughly based on enactment. Okay. Do you understand the idea? Okay. we can have a phrase that I've often given you just now is enough we know intellectually that just now has to be enough because there isn't any other moment but in fact at the more practical level just now is not enough

[19:13]

If you saw what the kitchen crew was doing, you'd already be hungry. So you would feel, just now is not enough, I'm hungry, and so forth. But you keep coming back to this also recognition by putting this phrase before you. That you suddenly, no matter what your situation is, just now is enough. You find yourself just resting into that. We could say it's doting like arriving at the stage of the present moment. So then you could take a phrase, just now arriving.

[20:33]

Zen practice is inseparable from working with such focusing phrases. But basically this is taking an enlightenment view and enacting it. So the homologues are based on the vision of enlightenment and enacting the condition of enlightenment. And although not everyone will have this kind of energy-specific enlightenment experience, understanding the vision and condition of enlightenment

[21:42]

Zen as a practice has developed to bring you into an enlightening life. Mm-hmm. And again, these koans are these, we could call them enlightenment enactments. Like the phrase we have been, heaven and earth and I share the same body. mutual myriad things and I share the same root before it, same body.

[22:49]

So you stay with such a phrase and you let it begin to inform your life. So this is bringing the condition of enlightenment into your practical life. And it works. And it works for almost everyone. I think if you understand practice in this way not only can all of you live an enlightening life but you also create the conditions where the enlightenment experience although it's not that important is much more likely to happen.

[23:59]

I suppose the only advantage of the enlightenment experience is that it gives us a tremendous confidence. But sometimes that confidence is misguided. So we have to substitute for that confidence and for most of our practice in a faith in our decision to practice. In a faith in practice itself that lets us work with these kind of phrases. And the Sesshin-type experiences of long sitting are meant to affect the body in the same way as a peak enlightenment experience affects the body.

[25:01]

In other words, if you can sit straight with a lot of clarity over a long period of time, it changes the way your energy works the same way as enlightenment experience does. And I think for lay people, this means we can really practice thoroughly. If you want to carry practice to the next step, which then makes all of these things more developed, is then you have to basically make your whole life practice. But you can virtually make, if you want, your whole lay life practice.

[26:15]

But sometimes it's not possible, given your job or something. But I think in today's world, the distinction between what's a lay person and a monk is less and less distinct. Although I'm ordained as a monk, my life is also very much like yours. And Suzuki Roshi, although he grew up in temples all his life, he himself recognized, in fact, being married and so forth, he was also half a layman. Yes, Giulio?

[27:15]

I have the experience that, and it ties together with enactment, that it's very helpful to act as if. That's what enactment means. To act as if it were true. But I have a question. Where does intention fit in that gaining idea and no gaining idea? Okay, in German. I would like to know where you have the intention to win. To win. To win. I could, the most thorough way to, or one way to talk about it is the, to look at the absolute relative and imagined.

[29:04]

But I think leaving that aside, I'll... is that on one level of mind we have intentions to do this and that. Let's say to be a better person. On another level we just accept ourselves as the way we are. So they're both intentions. But one is an intention with a gaining idea and one is an intention without a gaining idea. Now, if your intention to accept yourself as you are is really the first stage of, I'll be a better person if I accept myself as I am.

[30:13]

Then you notice that. And you realize, well, I'll have to accept that too. But you can have... The movement of mind is intention. The intention is the shape we give to the movement of mind. And you can have intentions that are free of gaining ideas and intentions that are gaining ideas. While I'm saying this, Giulio's eyebrows are getting closer and closer together. Yes, Julian.

[31:15]

That's exactly the point. Intention is movement, and as soon as I intend it, I give it direction, and that is the goal. It's just a definition-gaining idea, but the movement is the same. But the effect is different. I totally understood what you mean. I can feel when I talk, if I am in the field of gaining idea or not, I would say that's maybe from the self, a gaining idea from the self. And then there can be a gaining idea from pure mind, and that is intention. You call it intention, You could call it gaining idea, or not? Well this is basically a language problem.

[32:31]

There's always some, if you're alive, there's always some movement to your mind. If you want to call all intentions gaining ideas, you can. But also some are more gaining than others. And some can be less gaining than others. And if that's true, then it means some can be virtually non-gaining entirely. Now, one of the things I might do is give you some of the fruits of enlightenment experiences, as I've defined it. One is a security of mind and body. Strangely, you no longer worry about your mind or your body.

[34:20]

I mean, you take care of yourself. But there's some kind of physical security so deep, you don't care whether you live or die. You can't call that an intention, a gaining idea at least. If you're sick, it's okay. If you're not sick, it's okay. It doesn't make any difference to you. I mean, really deeply doesn't make any difference to you. It doesn't mean that for the sake of your friends and others you don't try to brush your teeth and stay reasonably healthy. But it isn't something that produces fear or anxiety anymore.

[35:20]

So I use that example because if we don't even care whether we're alive or dead, this is pretty close to a non-gaining idea. If we've come to the point where we don't care whether we're alive or dead, it's time for a break. Let's sit for a moment. Mm-hmm So, what would you like to bring up?

[37:33]

I have a question in regard to the recognitions. Perhaps there are experiences based on a mistake, on an error, and I guess they are called makyo, and how can I distinguish these? I think of the first Zen story I heard. The guy goes in to his teacher and says, you know, in Zazen this spider keeps appearing in my Zazen.

[38:42]

Yeah, spider, yeah. And every zazen it gets bigger. Finally, he comes about the fourth or fifth time and says, now it's just hanging there. He says, I have to have an intention to kill it. All right, he says, well, how are you going to kill it? He says, I'm going to bring a knife into Zazen with me. And the teacher says, you've got to kill this spider with one blow. So first you better mark it, put an X on it. And then the second, so bring a brush in first. And then the second zazen, stab it.

[39:53]

So he goes in and meditates and the spider is even more huge. So he gets out the brush. And he goes to see his teacher. I marked it. If we end for that spider in exasperation. And the teacher says, lift up your robe. He lifts up his robe and there's a big X on his tummy. If that was the first Zen story I heard, I'm surprised I'm still sitting here. But sometimes we don't know and ideally your teacher helps. But after a while you can tell what's a valid cognition and what's not. You can tell what gives you a feeling of unity and what doesn't. Man kann sagen, was ein Gefühl der Einheit gibt und was nicht.

[41:27]

Does that make sense? I'm still pondering about gaining ideas and I wonder whether the important point is whether I want to gain something for myself. Well, that makes a difference, yes. Oh, very important. So I generally have the idea not to gain something that may be I gain, get it, you know. We practice no gaining ideas so that we get everything we want.

[42:32]

It's not that easy. Now, we have these little gangs here, this little gang and this gang here. You had some questions before on gaining ideas and so forth. Would you bring them up? Mm-hmm. Yes, my question was basically the same as what Giulio asked, that there is a fundamental intention in us, for example, why we start to practice and also in every Sesshin there is this intention to have certain experiences or the present moment,

[44:04]

in this mutual dependency for us, and then I had the feeling that this is only a question of definition, this is also a kind of gaining idea. Okay. Is that the same as I already know? Where's the fellow who was sitting there? Is he in the kitchen or just disappeared? He asked me to speak about Shikantaza, so I was going to. Yes? I thought during the break about all that, and I think this one dimension that maybe helps would be to not only say gaining idea, not gaining idea, but how do you define the self?

[45:21]

I mean, is it a gaining idea looked at from an individual point of view, or it can be, if you look at it as a gaining idea from a point of view, if you say I'm the Sangha or I'm humanity or I'm whatever, it can be totally different. That I meant was coming from pure mind or coming from the self. Maybe that's the definition. That was my question. I understand. But you also said something about in zazen you start your zazen off. Could you say that in English to me and then in German? Or do I? Okay. For me, when I'm in Sesshin, I always start the Sesshin with all this concentration on my breath, on my chakras. I mean there is a pathway which I go and for this pathway I think I need attention or a kind of gaining idea and then

[46:33]

I also know this experience at a certain point if there is a concentration field. Then sometimes there come in thoughts like, oh, that feels good, and oh, hold it, and yeah, some kind of this. And then I know, no, for me, that's really gay ideas. And I know I have to drop them in order to go further or to expand this field. And this part of gaining ideas, I understand. But first, how I go into this shit, I mean, every form of... willingness and going into. And that, I mean, maybe it's just a kind of definition, but I could also call that gaining ideas.

[47:37]

And I have the feeling that I'm necessary. It's necessary to have this kind of intention. Yeah. Okay. Deutsch. When I look at my practical path, for example, when I go into a Sesshin and make experiences in a Sesshin, this is how it starts, and I think this is the case with almost everyone, that we sit down and concentrate on the species, or in any method or form we build up a concentration and a field of concentration, and for that I need a kind of intention, a willingness, a direction to go there. and then, when this field of concentration has arisen, I would say that this comes from the self or from the ego, which then says, oh, this feels good, or stop it, or do it this way, and then I know that this kind of thought, also of winning thoughts, that they hinder,

[48:54]

and then I try to give up. So that's a kind of winning thought, where I understand, yes, that's rather hindering. But my basic intention, my willingness, also in this pain and in this to enter this field at all, is also a kind of premise, of intention, and I mean, I could also define it as an ideal. I get the feeling that there's a lot of moral involved in this. Moral? Yes. The direct values that this is good and not good. Yeah, in her question. Also in Giulio's and what was brought up in the last minutes. And I think it can't be a definition of morality.

[49:59]

define if it's good or not. It must be something different. Because if it's morality, then on which basis we are choosing the basis. So my feeling from the questions that are coming now is that there is a lot of morality in it, so evaluation, that it is good or bad. And if it is a moral evaluation, then the question arises on what basis do we evaluate it. Well, there's also a need to work with the mind in a way that's productive. It's very difficult to do something without some idea of doing something productive. The problem is, it may be productive. So you think this is good. But the problem is, it's the usual way the mind works. You're just using it for goals that you like.

[51:20]

But it's not the mind of enlightenment. Because the mind of enlightenment works differently. Yes? Bring him in. Everything you name? What, for example, what do you mean? Yes? To say freedom is a... Yeah, but if I just name what you said yesterday, what is there to be liberated from?

[52:28]

That feeling is the essence of an enlightening mind. But if you name something with a particular intention, yes, it's a gaining idea. But if you just name, this is a long breath, it's just a recognition, it's not really a gaining idea. Okay. So that's the statement I gave you this morning.

[54:03]

that are from the very earliest of Zen Buddhism in China. So you want to translate any of them? Yes, so the first is to cut off the mind that is in search. Do not keep the wishes after the fruits of the Buddha. The next one is, let the mind move freely, do not dwell on anything, do not dwell on anything. And the third one, bring me your mind and I will free it. And the last one, emptiness, not holiness. All of these things contradict what you three have been saying.

[56:15]

So I think we have to look at these basic positions, these four things, basic positions that represent the whole direction of Zen practice. This means the diamond sutra. This is the friend with the... that the Sixth Patriarch overheard, supposedly, let the mind flow freely, do not dwell on anything when the Sixth Patriarch was enlightened. He overheard somebody chanting the Diamond Sutra as a young boy. So this is the sentence that the Sixth Patriarch overheard when someone chanted it to him. It was a small child who chanted this sentence.

[57:23]

He overheard it casually. And this is what Bodhidharma said, my mind is not free, it's bound. Bodhidharma said, bring me your mind and I will free it. And he said, I can't find it. And Bodhidharma said, then I freed it. Now, these are all these enlightenment enactment statements that you have to work with. You know, the emperor asks, blah, blah, blah, blah, what's the fruits and merits of Buddhism and how should I, what intention should I have?

[58:25]

And Bodhidharma said, emptiness, no holiness. And that's the same as to let, don't dwell on anything, don't have any intention in your mind. Or cut off the mind that seeks. So I know that what the three of you have said is very convincing. But I've got four friends here to help me. So how do you deal with that? It is practicing uncorrected mind is not easy.

[59:34]

But maybe... Yeah. That's just paradoxical. I assume that you put language on it, because what you just said, practicing uncorrected mind, is not easy. That's absurd, this statement. Why? Well, because anything that you do in your mind is uncorrected. Yeah, good. But can you do that for a whole sashin? There is a direction in one's, when you practice uncorrected mind, and you really do try to not dwell on anything.

[61:00]

Again, this is only what Sukhriyasi says, don't invite your thoughts to tea. Okay. Can you let various things come in without interfering with them but also not dwelling on them? This is the secret of Zazen. Every other practice brings intention in to do something with your mind. This does not. But what is concentration then? Concentration is a kind of dwelling on The basic posture of zazen is uncorrected mind.

[62:12]

Within that basic posture, we do things like concentrate on our breath, have various intentions, and so forth. And that's okay. But if those don't keep disappearing into the larger mind, larger uncorrected mind, they may be fruitful. But then you need a whole different kind of Buddhism to deal with the fruits. Because there's Buddhism which does tell you to do this and that and then provides antidotes for what happens when you do those things.

[63:16]

Do you understand what I just said? In other words, if you do your meditation with intention, And most Buddhism gives you a map of what's going to happen. Every intention presupposes a map. Are you with me on that? Yeah. Okay. If there's a map, then we have to have a Buddhism that frees you from the map. And Zen doesn't teach that way. Zen says be free from the map from the very beginning. Zen is described as aiming at the top of the mountain rather than a staged practice going up the mountain.

[64:30]

I guarantee you it's not easy to not dwell on anything. It's the whole habit of our intelligence to do so. Yes, Dieter? I feel the answer to the question of intention is much to do with what you said yesterday about the shift of the identity point and the point of the observer also becomes... On the level of maybe thinking, even the statements are sound paradox because they are imperatives. They are not imperatives without attention.

[65:34]

But the point of where the initial point of concentration had drawn the point of identification and the focus of the observant into the act. It's still the question of intention. Also, it's not to bridge a gap from being here to get there. But I think at the beginning, at least on a practical level, we need some focus, and that focus is, of course, intention. Okay. Deutsch? It has a lot to do with what Roshi said yesterday about the point of location and the point of identification, the point of observation.

[66:42]

That at the beginning, when you sit down and locate yourself in the heart, that you have a kind of yes, you need concentration and also an intention to do this. If this focus once attracted the point of identification and the observer, then the question of intention shifts, I think. Yes, that's the idea and the problem. Yes. I wanted to say to Beate, but I don't know if I understood something correctly. For me, I have a rule of thumb, to be intentional when it comes to the process and the method, and unintentionally when it comes to the contents that come up.

[67:52]

Yes, I think so too. That's a good point. It fits. What did she say? I have a sort of rule that I have gaining ideas in regard of the method I choose, but I have non-gaining ideas in regard to the contents which comes up in a process, in a method I originally have chosen. That's good, yeah. There are intentions at different levels. Yeah. The observer always has to be free of gaining ideas, otherwise there's no real observation. I think that's what she's asking. The observation has clarity when there's no gaining ideas in the observation. An example of what Mahakavi said earlier, which I think some people didn't get, is if you take a frog and put it in cold water, it's cooked.

[68:57]

Then you turn the heat up, it's cooked before it knows what's happened. If you drop a frog in boiling water, it jumps out real quick. Not that I've ever tried it, but yes. For me, the root of the problem is that what to me is so attractive about Zen is that it's very pure about the fact that the mind cannot be controlled. And to me, at least that's my experience, it cannot be controlled. At the same time, counting your breath, intention, no gaining idea, all these are actually you have to control your mind to a certain degree to kind of give it the environment to have it settle.

[70:24]

And to me that's a very deep paradox. Yeah. Deutsch? For me, the root of the problem is that, in my experience, the mind cannot be controlled. At the same time, there are species cells or tiny, tiny, tiny ideas and so on. These are all intentions and everything is actually controlled by the mind. And there is simply a paradox for me. I love not knowing German. Everything's a mystery to me. Okay. Well, I'm enjoying this conversation. Because we're getting close to, you know, getting a sense of what this practice is about.

[71:30]

We have an intention to practice. You have an intention to bring your mind, attention to your breath. We have an intention which turns into faith just to do this practice and trust it. But we refrain from having intentions that are determined by results. Yeah, we practice. Of course, we'll always notice there's some level of practice where we hope to feel better or something.

[72:35]

And there's a stage of practice which is therapeutic. And therapeutic practice, it's fine. It's sometimes necessary. But it's not strictly speaking Zen practice. It's a kind of preparatory practice. So you practice Zen most fully when you just do it because you do it. Just moment after moment, you do it, that's all. Without any idea at all that this will benefit me eventually. That is by far and away the most productive, effective practice.

[73:47]

But if you do it because it's productive and effective, it diminishes its productiveness and effectiveness. So you're also again negotiating again in this sea of everyday moments. You're lessening your sense of wanting results. And you're noticing your sense of results. I can remember in the early days and months and years of my practice, I worked hard with this no-gaining idea. And of course I was supported by Suzuki Roshi. And if you wanted to be his friend, you had to have no gaining idea.

[74:53]

So I was supported in my friendship with him by having no gaining idea. But I did notice after a while at some point I never felt bad anymore. And I noticed that I noticed that I never felt bad anymore. And I noticed that I felt good about not feeling bad anymore. But I also noticed that it absolutely was irrelevant to me. At that point, I did not care whether I felt good or bad because I didn't live in that territory. There was a difference between feeling good and bad, but it was pretty unimportant.

[76:09]

Okay, now, so there's this intention and faith and practice, yes, that's certainly there. And there is a dynamic to leaving your mind alone. There tends to be a concrescence that occurs. Concrescence means to grow together. And there tends to be a movement downward. In other words, if you really just cannot dwell on anything and let the mind flow freely, one thing you're doing is you're not nourishing the contents of mind.

[77:16]

The contents of mind require watering like a garden. And your dwelling on them is the hose or water. So if you can really find that place where you let the mind flow freely but you don't dwell on it. And even if you start dwelling on them, you just accept that you're dwelling on them. You don't nourish that even. So, first of all, this is a big attitude of acceptance. And it has to accept even bad zazen as good zazen. So if you're sitting there and nothing happens and it's terrible zazen, it's okay. And eventually there's this shift to the field of mind away from the contents of mind.

[78:40]

And there's a shift toward it growing together as well as opening up. And you learn to let that happen. But the mind itself does it. You don't do it. And if there's any intention of the most noble in there, this doesn't happen. So the basic intention in Zen practice does not extend, Giulio, to controlling the mind. For Zazen, it extends to the posture and stops. There's certainly an intention to sit straight, lift up through your back and so forth.

[79:51]

And that intention then allows you to let your mind alone. Why Zen emphasizes posture more than any other Buddhist school is because it wants to stop intention there. And so there's a kind of fine-tuning of the posture. so that you can really stop intention at that point and let the mind flow freely without dwelling on anything. This is a definition of Shikantasa. Yes? As far as I understand it now, there is posture, and the posture allows a relationship, the relationship with the momentum that does something.

[81:14]

Yeah, something like that. Yeah, that's a way of understanding it. Your mind is alive. You don't have to make it alive. and if you're bored then you have to go through the boredom barrier and the ego controls us through making things interesting and of course going back to self-worth and all that stuff our society controls us by presenting us interesting things to think about and do And the ego will, if it looks like you're really going to seriously persist in zazen, the ego will make zazen as boring as possible. And if you continue to persist and the boredom barrier dissolves, then there's even threats.

[82:39]

You might be going crazy. You better watch out. Of course, you might be. I can't guarantee that you're not. But it's one stage of practice to threaten us with fear and so forth. But each of you is the most extraordinary event in the universe that we know. There's nothing more complex, developed or extraordinary as each of you. How can you possibly ever be born? You're bored because you're... You're bored because you're... ego and consciousness have a collusion to create a territory in which you live.

[83:52]

That's enough for now. We're supposed to have lunch soon, aren't we? Fifteen minutes ago. Okay. Quads.

[84:27]

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