This morning I said to you that before the Buddha lifted the flower, the consciousness the flower-raising consciousness was already there. And there's not much else you need to know. But how to realize this, practice this, we can talk about various things.

[01:01]

But when I say this, it's as obvious as if I say to you, today is the third day. I mean, unless I presume you don't know how to count, there's no reason to tell you that it's the third day. But every Sashin I find myself telling you it's the third day. But it's just as obvious that if enlightenment has any meaning, it's already here.

[02:04]

It can't be a category in the future. The happiest day of your life is not just around the corner. Somehow we need to practice with the feeling that everything we need is just now. And in many ways, of course, things we need are not right now. But these are not the category of realization or enlightenment. So whatever your state of mind, somehow you have to come back to just now. And I can teach you about various kinds of knowledge and consciousness.

[03:22]

And I believe this knowledge will be helpful to you. It will give you confidence in your practice. And help you more quickly recognize the path. But the path remains just now. Just now. Just now. And you know, following the precepts is quite important.

[04:39]

And I think the precepts should be in the background of your mental and physical activity all the time. A sense of when you're speaking, are you leaking or not leaking? The precepts point out ways in which we point to our potential wounds and point to how we leak in our behavior. But really, the precepts are a manifestation or expression of an enlightened mind.

[05:46]

So we should study the precepts from this point of view. The precepts are something to follow or remind us. But really the precepts arise from a precept-keeping state of mind. Now, Buddha didn't just raise the flower. Mahakashyapa also raised a smile. So we have smile-raising consciousness, too. And smiling is a response to conflict or some kind of contradiction.

[06:58]

I mean, this world is riddled with... Riddled with? Do you know? No, riddled... Oh, that's good. Riddled means... Yeah, puzzled with. Or riddled means... If you're riddled with bullets, it means you've been shot through and through. So I don't know what the translation would be. Penetrated with, thoroughly penetrated with. But it also has the sense of a riddle or a pun or something. So this world is riddled with contradictions. And one response, a natural response to conflict is anger. But also we can respond with a smile or humor. So the following of the precepts is also a choosing, knowing the states of mind in which you live.

[08:29]

I made a distinction yesterday between the body you have and the lived body, the structured, yeah. I believe Durkheim made a distinction between the body you have and the body you are. And someone asked Ulrike yesterday about, why didn't I say the living body instead of the lived body? And I guess it's just, I know what the question means, but I guess it's just in English you can't say the living body. Because it just means the body in contrast to the dead body.

[09:37]

If you went to buy a car and you said, I'd like the driving car, if you want a second-hand car, it would be the car driving by. But if you said, I wanted a driven car, then they'd know you wanted a car that had been used. So it's just a way of, it's just a kind of technical term, the lived body. And the body you actually live or experience. So far I've tried to give you a feeling for the way if you bring your attention to your breath, you're able to enter your lived body with some discrimination.

[11:24]

Begin to feel the various states of mind that we live. Mm-hmm. So another way of looking at the precepts is not to follow the precepts, but to be able to choose the kind of mind you live in, the state of mind you live in. And it's a kind of basic decision in practice whether you choose a world of mentation in which you're thinking about things all the time or you choose the state of mind you're in.

[12:33]

And practicing mindfulness practices, etc., are all ways to choose the state of mind you're in rather than to think about the world. And in however you practice and whatever state of mind you choose to be in, And home base is usually your breath. By bringing your attention to your breath, you're choosing a certain state of mind or base from which to experience other things. And if I were, as I want to in this speaking this afternoon, to keep this simple, if I were to say, you know, one practice is

[13:56]

If you don't do anything else in Zen practice, but get the ability to reside in your breath body, everything else will follow from that. That means naturally, when you have a choice, the place of rest or the place you're attracted to is not mentation, but your breath. Which means you're attracted to the field of mind rather than the object of mind, objects of mind. Now, yesterday when I talked about being able to study the pain that comes up in sitting, in long sitting, I didn't mean to create some kind of macho atmosphere where all of you feel that because you moved or twitched, you failed now.

[15:42]

I hope after my talk, the pain did not become worse. Yeah. As far as I'm concerned, you're free to move, you know. Many of you want to move your legs right now, please. But I want to point out, when you choose not to move, There are certain benefits that arise from it. One is you realize what one of the entries to a truly neutral state of mind Because unless you're quite peculiar, we don't really desire pain.

[16:50]

So if you can stay in a state of mind and body which is painful, And you don't retreat from it. But you're actually not attracted to it either. So it's a desireless state of mind. You don't desire it, but you stay in it. You actually learn something from it. You know, Buddhism divides the world up into three kinds of minds, like, dislike, and neutral. And neutral sounds pretty boring.

[17:52]

I'm in a very neutral state of mind today. I'd be much more fun to have, you know, either a like or a dislike. But if you're sitting in the midst of quite a lot of pain and you've merged your legs with the earth element, You're not exactly in a neutral state of mind. Or in the sense of boring or dull. You're quite fully attentive, but in a desireless state. If you desire to get, as soon as you desire to be free of the pain, it's much worse. So to stay in this state, you have to be desireless.

[19:07]

And really this is, I don't know, I'm using this as an example to get to what is really meant by detachment. It's not neutral or boring. It's a very, it's a desireless but very present state of mind. You may think it's impossible not to like or dislike what that's what we all do. But it is possible to have a state of mind where there's just a mild, unexciting happiness. But it is possible to have a state of mind where there is just a mild, not exciting happiness.

[20:13]

But just that the activity of the state of mind is... It's acceptance but not confirmation. I don't know quite what to say. It's one expression of being at ease in the world. So these softer states of mind and the greater softness or, as I said the other day, pliancy you feel in your body that will result from being able to abide in this painful state of mind or to abide in the same way in the bliss of concentration, the result is a kind of physical softness or pliancy.

[21:26]

And that state of mind is considered very fertile for things to happen. For your karma to be present in your activity with much more subtlety. And in this state of mind, you need to keep making the decision that everything I need is just now. And how are you going to believe this? If you don't believe it, you can't say it with conviction. And I would hope that all my talking is nothing more than to bring you to believe this.

[22:53]

To believe this and have faith in this. And in any way you can, bring yourself back to just now. Just now. I don't know what words you want to use, but something. Aber auf jede nur erdenkliche Art bringt euch immer zurück zu diesem gerade jetzt. Ganz gleich, was für Worte ihr wählt. If you analyze just now, what's the problem with just, the problem with now, but you're using this word as a technique. Someone asks, who is the observer? And you could answer, who asked the question? This becomes the questions disappear into emptiness.

[24:01]

So somehow you need some approach just now that stops mentation. But stop mentation is both right and wrong to say that. It's a kind of act of release. You don't care. You release your your lived body. So you practice in such a way that you have precept-keeping states of mind.

[25:05]

But within the states of mind, of mindfulness in which you practice, You have some phrase or practice that keeps releasing you or letting you go. Letting you, the observer, go. Letting all concerns about things go. This very mind is Buddha. I mean, sudden enlightenment only means that you have to practice in this way because enlightenment cannot be in the future or past.

[26:06]

If it cannot be in the future, in the past, you have to practice in a way that you recognize just now, just now. And if you have any expectation, not just now. If you want something good to happen, it's not just now. If you care really about what state of mind you're in, it's not just now. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't compute. But in the biggest sense, it computes. The Buddha is right here.

[27:07]

The Buddha is raising this, the consciousness, flower consciousness, mind of the Buddha is right here in this room. Where else can it be? Is it back in the past somewhere? Is it in India? I mean, you have to know this, otherwise all your practice comes to nothing. And to raise a flower is just to practice the precept. Is to recognize that everything you experience is a surface of the world. Everything you experience is a surface of the world. And like a blind person in the dark, if you follow the surface, you can find your way through the house.

[28:13]

So if you deeply follow the surfaces of your lived body, you'll find out how we are connected with not independent from anything. And the fullness of that allows us just now. Anyway, all you've got is what you've got. So you have no choice anyway. You have your breath. Yeah. You have other ingredients.

[29:17]

You've got a car parked out there somewhere and things like that. I suppose you have a bed at home somewhere. All these things are useful. But that's where the structure of your body lives. Your lived body is right here. And it will always be right here. And you don't have to wait for the Buddha to raise the flower. You can raise the flower. You don't have to wait for Mahakasyapa to smile. You can smile. What's stopping you? Okay. They are intention.

[30:31]

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