Won't you thank you all for each of you for being here? And I have to find out how loudly to speak. Can you hear me? Okay. Yeah. Okay. My mother had a voice where if you're in a movie theater and she whispered something to you, people way in the back would say, shut up. But I didn't inherit the entirety of her voice. So it's a pleasure for me to be back in sort of Oldenburg, near Oldenburg.

[01:00]

And I'm grateful that Bernd and Nicole and others arranged for me to be here with you. Yeah, and I have a feeling of, yeah, I want to use the word arriving here. And, yeah, a feeling of each of you arriving. And so ein Gefühl davon, dass ein jeder von euch ankommt. Yeah, and I have a little room upstairs somewhere. And I can see the corn, a pretty big field of corn out there. And I grew up when I was one to ten or eleven in what's called the corn belt in America.

[02:05]

I mean, the men steal the corn, drive for hours, just corn, going by the car, you know. But here, I have the feeling of, you know, I know I'm sounding, do I dare say it, I know I'm sounding sort of corny. Do you know the expression? Oh, um... I don't want to translate what I think it is. We'd better find out what it is. Cautious means making obvious bad jokes. I don't know what you would have translated.

[03:22]

It's worse what I would have translated. Oh, good. Thanks for checking up. It means something like schmaltzy, you know. But, you know, I had the feeling of each, all of this corn, but I had the feeling of each stalk of corn arriving. And I could hear the doves were crying. And there's a famous little statement. The truth abides objectively. In the fields of spring, The hundred flowers are red.

[04:37]

Doves cry in the wilderness. And one of his main disciples was enlightened hearing this. Any of you? So what is it that such a phrase... Yeah, I could, I mean... What is there about a phrase like that? And... Locate such a phrase for yourself.

[05:49]

You have to examine it. The truth abides objectively. First of all, is that true? Yeah, and even if it is, if it has some truth, what would the truth of it be? Yeah, of course, a hundred flowers are with. And we don't have the fields of spring exactly, but the fields of summer now. And we do have the dogs crying willows. So I'm trying to find a way to speak about this title we have. Also versuche ich eine Art und Weise zu finden, über diesen Titel, den wir hier haben.

[07:01]

I saw it in a little piece of paper. It's in English. Living Original Mind. Is it in German too? It's also in German. What does it say in German? Ursprünglichen Geist sehen. Does it mean the same thing more or less? Also der Artikel, das habe ich auf so einem kleinen Flyer gesehen, der ist auf Englisch Living Original Mind und auf Deutsch eben Ursprünglichen Geist sehen. Well, we all, we all, I mean, sometimes, I mean, we are all living. But, you know, I don't know what exactly is living, but anyway, we are all living. And what is the original mind? What could be original mind? Yeah. Now the single most important distinction for Zen practice, for Buddhism even, I would say,

[08:21]

when we think about or are interested in what is mind, is a distinction between the field of mind and the contents of mind. then there is a distinction between the field of the spirit and the contents of the spirit. And as you know, I've been doing this for a long time. And still, I would say, after all these years, yes, this distinction is essential. And although many of you have heard me make this distinction before, I would like you not to think you understand it. Please. You do understand that it's wrong.

[09:23]

But just understanding it is wrong. It's just a matter of somehow letting it arrive. Yes, letting, I would say, again being a bit schmaltzy, letting your own aliveness arrive. Yeah, where each of us somehow we've been living our life pretty well for a pretty long time. Yeah. Getting through each day somehow. sometimes getting through days with considerable satisfaction, even joy.

[10:42]

But... And that... I find it helpful to bring attention to each of our aliveness. If we're going to talk about Zen practice, we have to put ourselves somehow in, we have to start with our aliveness.

[12:02]

We're not starting with scriptures or some kind of rules of teaching. We're not starting with the scriptures or some kind of rules of teaching. Yeah, we just need to start with, I don't know, I sound like I'm leading a seminar. Our aliveness. Yeah, and usually the simplest way is just to bring attention to your breath. Not so much to notice your breath, but to notice your attention. And then through the breath, bring attention to attention. Yeah, to these senses, to this mind.

[13:09]

To these senses, to this mind. Mm-hmm. Yeah, because we've got to, again, start somewhere. And we're not going to get anywhere unless we kind of settle, take a moment and settle into our aliveness. So I'm suggesting to you, bring attention to your breath. Really in order in this case to notice tension itself. And a kind of ease that can settle into us through attention.

[14:11]

Yeah, now the two main practices in Zen are mindfulness and meditation, zazen. And mindfulness and zazen just are a way of bringing attention, first of all, to, yeah, being alive. And I'm speaking this way to suggest that we not do much more than that, at least now, for now, this beginning of the seminar. Now it's just on the train coming here. The train was supposed to arrive in Hannover. And back on the way.

[15:45]

But about 40 minutes late. So I missed the train to Oldenburg. So I called Andreas and he got on his white horse and rode down to the station. French white horse. And Citroen was on me. And Janine was on the same train as I was. And as we came down, I don't know, I called him and I said, we're going to be half an hour or more late. There he was at the bottom of the escalator. On a white horse, rescuing us. But sitting on the train, you know, there's some kind of planning that the train will get to Hanau, as it did. Although both I and the Deutsche Bahn were planning to get to Hannover.

[17:00]

In fact, out the window, everything was alive. Yeah, I mean, on the one hand, there was the plan to get to Hannover. And at the same time, though, mostly just things were coming. But at the same time, things were just coming to me all the time. A tree, you know. A house. A group of trees. Yeah, and I couldn't think about it much.

[18:04]

And it wasn't... And if I did think about it, then I missed the flowers in the garden of the little house. So I just let, yeah, most of us do, we ride the train, just let things appear. I just let things arrive. It's rather refreshing, actually. Now, I'm trying to speak about the original mind. Original mind is a concept, obviously. And, you know, it's worth giving some thought to. Does it make any sense?

[19:13]

Do you have an experience of an unoriginal mind or original? What does it mean? It's certainly one of the most important phrases in Zen Buddhism. And we have a sense of that. It sounds kind of poetic and nice. But actually, in your own experience, what would you call original mind? What does the phrase call forth some kind of hope for you? That there might be something like original life. And again, I think, you know, whatever age you are, 20 or 30, 40 years, Seventy, maybe.

[20:31]

This, whatever it is, it's a fantastic idea. One's whole life you could be paternal. Is there an original mind? And if there is, do I already know it? Or is it not yet known? Or is it not yet fully known? Or is it something I can live? Is there some purity about it or stability about it?

[21:38]

When we're anxious or busy or distracted, do we think that anxiety or distraction or I need to do this or I need... Is that original mind? What would be original mind? Nicole and I are sitting here talking away and is this original mind? Yeah. So, I mean, bring out your own poetry in yourself of what might be original mind. Now, somehow I want to say respecting each stalk of corn in its own aliveness. The amazing aliveness of each dog crying in the wilderness.

[22:59]

The amazing aliveness of each dog. amazing gladness of each of us for me again each of you is now arriving for me I don't mean because of me or because I'm doing a seminar or something like that I just mean that my own experience is gathering in, yeah, in our gathering. So, you know, I've been speaking recently about the concept in China of the future.

[24:00]

which is in some contrast, especially to the concept of the future in English. In English, we clearly have the idea that we go into the future. And by contrast, the Chinese have the feeling the future comes to you, comes toward you. The future is always coming toward you. I mean, it's even, you know, it's like it's slapping us in the face. It's coming toward you. The present is coming toward us. When we have some concept like this or we can feel our way into a concept like this it's just a small shift. But it can be a very big shift.

[25:35]

Feeling the world coming to us. On the one hand we're planning to go to Hanover but at the same time the sea is coming to us. Yeah. What state of mind really lets everything arrive? Certainly there needs to be a kind of openness, openness, patience, openness and patience if you're going to let things arrive. So we could have some, you know, phrase. I mean, if you could stay with this word arriving for this evening and during the seminar. To let things arrive.

[26:37]

What? What haste do you need in yourself to let things arrive? Bring attention to the breath. Maybe the heartbeat, the body. In such a way that you can feel And I don't know how to say it any, I don't know how to say it more, yeah, vividly or poetically.

[27:40]

But you know, when something moves us, it arrives. when we're moved by something, there's a kind of surprise involved. When we have an insight or an intuition, it arrives. Yeah, and again, when we're moved by a person or a situation or a movie film, There's a quality of arriving in being moved. So now I'm thinking, what does sāsana meditation bring to this world? to this, what I'm speaking of.

[28:53]

Now, are you planning to do sadhana tomorrow morning? How many of you are staying here in this building? So those of you who are staying here in the building, if you want, you might afterwards figure out if before... Is there breakfast served here? Yes. Really? We can eat. You might have Zazen before or after, but probably before breakfast. And the people who are not staying here, can they have breakfast here or are they going to eat somewhere else probably? They can sign up for breakfast, but they can eat somewhere else. You can't eat anywhere else.

[29:58]

Yeah, I didn't even eat. Oh my God. Okay. But I'm not suggesting that all of you should do Zazen. I would never suggest that. But if it interests you or at least we should speak about it in the context of Zen practice for sure. And if you do do Zazen tomorrow morning or this evening I suggest you think about it as sort of like getting into a warm bath.

[31:00]

Kind of let yourself down into the water of a bath. It's not too cold, not too hot. So it's maybe a feeling like letting yourself down into a mind that's not thinking too much. A mind in which you're just going to let things arrive. whatever bubbles up so some kind of what I'm trying to do is speak again about the concept of original mind and to give you some other concepts that can make it useful

[32:08]

So I spoke about it, yeah, being untrained, money being survived. And not in a way that there's no planning, because, you know, again, as I said, I was planning to go to the same time I was planning to arrive in Hanover. But more fundamentally, I was just letting things arrive. And I'm suggesting you let your aliveness arrive. You let each person or each thing you see or notice arrive. Just for this weekend, let's try this out. See if we can have the experience of arriving within each moment.

[33:15]

Within each situation. And if you meditate, do zazen, you can more directly arrive in mind itself. Yeah. No, I can say very simply, if we make again the distinction between contents of mind and the field of mind. Not to work with this distinction, you have to do your own research. To notice what you give your attention to.

[34:32]

What occupies your attention. And if Yeah, by your research, noticing what percentage of time, most of the time, is your attention occupied? So please notice the degree to which it's occupied with the contents of mind, thoughts, feelings, moods.

[35:32]

And you know that tension is the most valuable asset, aspect you have, you are. What you bring your attention to is what you give life to. Okay, so we bring our attention to all kinds of things. How could we bring attention to the field of mind instead of the contents of mind. In the literature, current literature about consciousness and science, you know, neurology, et cetera, all that stuff,

[36:37]

There is very little awareness of the distinction between the contents of mind and the field of mind. Just none, something that's part of our culture, part of our way of noticing things. So how could you notice, instead of the contents of mind, how can you notice the field of mind? If it makes sense, the field of mind, the contents are in a field. Or maybe they're not in a field. Maybe that's just my idea. But yes, Yeah, you know that when you're in a certain state of mind, everything, the contents take on the quality of that state of mind.

[38:10]

The closest we come to enlightenment is, well, we call love misdirected enlightenment. Ideal love would be be in love and directed and not misdirected enlightenment. And certainly while the experience of being in love lasts it's something like the experience of enlightenment. But it's tied to another person and it's quite Fragile.

[39:30]

If the other person decides they don't love you, there goes the enlightenment, there goes those... Okay. When you're in love, everything looks pretty good, as you may remember. That's because it's the field of mind that's important, not the contents of mind. Just as in dreaming, waking, it's the field of mind that counts. Now, how can you bring your attention from the content of the mind to the field of mind? When truth abides objective in the field of bringing A hundred flowers are red.

[40:47]

Dogs cry in the woods. Yes, enough for this evening. I leave you with this potential of arriving. Ich verlasse euch mit diesem Potenzial und dieser Möglichkeit, das Ankommen. We're discovering the occasion. Right. The occasion is always present. Die Gelegenheit, die immer gegenwärtig ist. What time are we supposed to start tomorrow? Well, people have to know if they're staying somewhere else.

[41:54]

Ten o'clock is fine. What time is what? Good. What time is breakfast served? Well, they want to hear when we start. Okay. So I'll let you figure it out, but we'll start at 10 o'clock tomorrow. Thank you very much. And thank you for translating. You're welcome. Somebody support. Well, not well supported.

[42:55]

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