We sat, you can't hear me? No. Little amplification. Closer to. . As I started to say when I was silent, If you have a body, you can meditate.

[01:04]

But if we sat from now until evening, for some of you it would be pretty difficult. Even though you presumably have your body from now until this evening. Or perhaps not have your body, be your body. So what we'll try to do is, as usual in a seminar, find some balance between how much we have talk and discussion and how much we meditate. And next Saturday evening, I believe, we start a set. Some of us will sit a seven-day Sashin at the Haus Destiller near Hamburg. So always at the Sashin, there are people who feel we're sitting too much.

[02:26]

And here, some of you will feel we talk too much. So meditation practice is to settle yourself on yourself. And really to find some way in which you can sit comfortably over some time, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour. To sit comfortably without moving. And most postures require us to keep moving to maintain them.

[03:52]

So basically you're trying to find a posture where it's easier not to move. And for some thousands of years, the decision has been that the yoga posture, half or full lotus, is the easiest posture not to move in. But for those of you who are not familiar with zazen meditation, the most important part of your posture is your back. So however you sit, the first point is to try to have your back straight. So your legs are secondary to that posture of your back.

[05:20]

But heat, when you're alive you're cold, and when you're dead you're cold, and when you're alive you're warm. And heat is closely connected with consciousness. with both consciousness and awareness. So another factor in what meditation posture is, is to find a posture where your warmth and heat is most consolidated. So your body doesn't have to worry too much about keeping your feet warm, things like that. So you want to sit, again, that's one of the reasons for this posture of the legs, is it allows your body's heat to be concentrated.

[06:36]

But some people have tried to meditate in cold weather, particularly now, the days when we have down jackets and so forth. And they wear down jackets, big socks, gloves, and so forth. And then you can't meditate. Because your body doesn't have to produce any heat. And if you sit still, you become very chilled if you were down. So again, you're not supposed to keep, in meditation you're supposed to, unless you're sitting seiza, where your feet are out behind,

[07:49]

If you're sitting cross-legged, you don't wear socks and you have your hands and head and neck usually. You're not supposed to wear a turtleneck, I'm sorry. Because you want to have your body required to produce heat. I think that's actually one of the reasons yogis, some of them like me, shave their heads. Because you lose most of your body heat through your head. So if you have a shaved head, you need to find ways to seal, control your body heat. But for those of you who are beginners today in meditation, you don't have to shave your head this weekend.

[09:09]

Anyway, the only point I'm making is that you find some way to sit comfortably With your back a lifting feeling through your back. And a lifting feeling through the back of your neck. And it's good when you first start sitting to rock forward and back a little bit. And left and right. Maybe stretch your head and body a little bit. And then again, lift up through your back.

[10:12]

And sit any way you can that your back can be straight. And sit so you can feel a kind of coziness or intimacy with your body's heat. So while you're, on the one hand you have this lifting feeling through your back, you have a relaxing feeling coming down from your head through your shoulders. and if it makes sense you want your mind to be as relaxed as possible again as I said last night you want to have as much as possible an uncorrected state of mind

[11:40]

Okay, so let's start with a little sitting. As I've just described, lift up through your back. And then allow yourself to feel relaxed. And put your hands together. And any posture that's comfortable for you. Generally, if you're right-handed, you put your left hand on top. And if you're And if you're left-handed, you put your right hand on top. And although I said the basic mental posture in zazen is an uncorrected state of mind, it's good to give a little structure to your mind.

[14:15]

By bringing your attention to your breathing. Bringing your attention into your exhales. Oh God.

[15:50]

It's usually best to have your eyes just a little bit open. Not looking at anything, but letting a little light in. So man schaut nichts Besonderes an, aber man lässt etwas Licht herein. And your mouth is a very sensitive and accessible area of consciousness.

[19:20]

And your teeth should be lightly together And your jaw muscles are relaxed. And your tongue at the roof of your mouth or touching the roof of your mouth. And your tongue is at the top of your thumb. I'm sorry.

[22:46]

as you can begin to center your attention on your breath without excluding anything So you're not concentrating in a way that excludes things. You're just bringing your attention to your breath. And not excluding anything. So the posture, you could say the posture of hearing, the attitude toward hearing, is to not try to exclude sounds,

[28:00]

Whatever comes, comes and goes, goes. So the basic posture of hearing is to hear yourself hearing. or hear hearing. So as you're beginning to be able to bring your attention to your breath, and not exclude anything,

[32:19]

A funny kind of strength arises in your zazen. Not exactly a strength that comes from you. But it feels more like a strength that's already there. You begin to sit up into it. And it invigorates your body. And as you get more used to sitting it relaxes your mind.

[33:51]

And it makes your mind and body feel very clear. This sasen meditation posture is the easiest way to first get a taste of this kind of strength and clarity. And it's not so much a matter of sitting a long time.

[35:03]

As it is being able to sit still. In a relaxed way for even a few moments. Thank you very much.

[37:20]

Please sit any way that's comfortable for you. Sounds like you need a cough drop or a glass of water. I thought I had one, but I don't. I was told that in Berlin it's difficult for people to do anything before 10 o'clock.

[38:29]

I don't know if that's because people in Berlin sleep late or the transportation system doesn't get you here or there's no parking. I don't know. Or maybe you don't go to bed till three, I don't know. I was told we should start at 10 because that's the earliest you can do anything in. So anyway, we're starting at 10 today and I guess tomorrow. And I also was told that what they usually do here at Zeitbosch is have a break from 1 to 3.

[39:33]

Again, it is difficult, I know, to find restaurants and so forth and eat and come back. Anyway, two hours seems a little long to me. Hour and a half seems probably possible, but we can decide. Are there any official Zeitloss people here? So what you usually find works is 10 to 1 and 1 and then 3 to 6, is that right? Up to me, yeah? Okay. So what do you think of that? Is that a good schedule, 10 to 1 and 3 to 6, or should we... What do you suggest? 1 and a half hours, yeah.

[40:34]

Anybody else? Anybody think two hours is necessary? OK. And if we start at 10, probably stopping at 12 is too soon, right? So 1 o'clock is probably OK. We can start at, what, 6 AM, you said? Well, then you should come to Sashim. She forgets what language she's in. I can remember I used to sometimes translate Japanese into English. But then some of the Japanese people I knew could speak English too.

[41:44]

And they would start speaking English and I would start translating into Japanese. Whatever they said, I translated it, whatever language they used. I had no idea what I was doing. So you must feel that way sometimes. It's correct. Which language? Okay, so today we'll meet till, say, about one o'clock. And then come back at 2.30 and continue to, I don't know, around 6. Or 5.30, we'll see what our strength is. And then this afternoon, we'll make a decision about tomorrow.

[43:05]

Now, I'd like to start this morning with most of you, I think, were... How many of you weren't here last night? these two weren't here last night. You weren't here, were you, Michael? Okay, most of you were here. So I kind of dipped deep down last night. On the one hand, I spoke about something that it takes a while in practice before you can have much of a full sense of. But I think I also spoke about something that if you pay attention to yourself is not so unfamiliar.

[44:09]

I think about three people last night came up to me and said they felt like they were coming home. And what I was speaking about was a kind of, actually that's right, a kind of coming home where you don't feel you need anything. Home is where most of your things are. So if you can feel home just now, then most of your things are here. You don't need much. So I'd like to know, first of all, starting this morning, Any comments any of you have about last night or what you might not have understood or what you'd like me to follow up on?

[45:36]

And I found out last night that the title of the talk was The Miracle of Consciousness. Is there a different title for the seminar? What was announced? Is it the same? It's the same? Okay. They never told me what was being announced. Okay, so please, somebody has to say something. Okay, so please, somebody has to say something. They are busy, as you would expect from a Muslim family.

[46:54]

And that... I had the feeling earlier, when he said that he was a member of the People's House, that he was telling a story. And I thought, well, I can imagine that there is a lot to be said. And that really touched me, because it made me feel a little better. I'm very touched because somehow you really told my story last night when you pointed out this process of being torn on one hand illusion and delusion and on the other hand of disillusionment. and I'm kind of dangling in the air in the middle of all this and you then talked about certain practices to mature or widen one's consciousness and kind of this feeling

[47:57]

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