Thank you for coming to this first seminar after coming back from the United States. And we have this title, of mind and environment. And I suppose we should do something with it. Yeah. Yeah, we're practicing Buddhism or interested in Buddhism and Zen for some reason at this time in our culture. And it has to be rooted in some kind of sense of... how we explore or can know our world.

[01:28]

Because, you know, at least I hope that's what it is for you. Because it's... Buddhism isn't about, you know, telling you something so much. But rather giving you the means to explore your world. And as much as possible explore it free of your somewhat free of your personal and cultural habits. We're already working together here. Yeah, it was like a chorus.

[02:59]

It was good. Maybe you should all translate for him. I just listen. Yeah, that's right. You listen, I'll speak, and you all translate. But we can take turns. You all translate for him. Yeah. Then you can translate for me. We know very well from environmentalism and ecology and from common sense, that clouds, flowers, streams, food are all interconnected. And every time we eat something, we are benefiting from that connectedness.

[04:24]

And we're participating, not only benefiting, but participating in that connectedness. Yeah, but do we experience that connectedness? And what would it mean to experience connectedness? What would... What's the territory that we can experience connectedness? Not just know about it. And then what would be the benefits of experiencing connectedness? Why bother? And what would be the consequences of experiencing connectedness.

[05:31]

And how would it potentially, possibly affect our behavior? Our perceptions. The way we know ourselves. And so forth. These are questions that I think we should look at these next couple of days. And so if we're going to, we have to have some kind of definition, definition, idea of mind. And then, of course, environment. I mean, how can we experience, view, how can we view this environment

[06:32]

so that we open ourselves to its experience. I mean, we already experience the environment. You're sitting on something that's holding you up, I guess. Yeah, and so we'd also need some, maybe we could go further and have the environment of the mind we could talk about. Or even go farther out and talk about the mind of the environment. Some of you seem to be new to me.

[07:49]

I'm not new to everyone, but new to me. Or new to Johannes. And maybe you're new to Buddhism and meditation. Does anybody here have little experience in meditation? Okay. Even I need to. And how many don't know much about Buddhism or Zen Buddhism? So you just wandered in here by accident? Okay, this is the best kind of audience. So we should have some kind of...

[08:51]

meditation instruction. And I should consider this seminar also an introduction to Buddhism and Zen Buddhist practice. This is good, too. So let me... We're not going to be sitting much during this seminar, but we'll be sitting enough so that it can be an introduction to sitting.

[10:12]

And for those of you who want to sit more, we don't have chairs in the room, so you have to find some way to be comfortable. Though certainly if any of you want a chair, we can... We have some in the building somewhere. So how would, in the light of this, what I'm feeling about this seminar now, in the light of what I'm feeling about the seminar now, how would I describe why we do zazen meditation? We do zazen meditation to interrupt our habits. Can you see better now?

[11:21]

Yes. Good. I was worried about your neck there for a while. Now this is a posture you don't do very... I mean, it's not a usual posture. Particularly it's not normal or common because we sit still in it. We're maybe fairly still in sleeping. But we're sleeping. And here we're developing a physical ability to be still. And simultaneously conscious or aware.

[12:27]

And to take a posture that's not usual. and to develop an awareness in stillness, gives us, I mean, traditionally in Buddhism it's thought, that this simple posture Diese einfache Haltung ist der effektivste und kraftvollste Weg, euch selber zu erfahren, unabhängig von euren persönlichen, kulturellen und kulturellen Gewohnheiten. Particularly, but then it's not so easy.

[13:37]

Because you can just continue your mental habits. In fact, They may continue and break in full force. But this is actually already something different. Because you can immediately start to notice your mental habits. Noticing your mental habits is already a kind of interruption. But the primary dynamic of Zen practice, Zen meditation practice, is acceptance.

[14:46]

Now, how can acceptance be a dynamic? That can also be a topic for our... Now another definition for zazen is a posture big enough for two. Now what do I mean by that? Well, when we're sitting, there's by definition a dialogue going on. A dialogue between your... between this ideal posture you're trying to come into and noticing and accepting your own posture.

[16:02]

And this dialogue is extremely important. So you have your postures being informed by this sense of sitting with lifting through your back. And if I look at my translator, I think of how many miles of back he has to lift through. I wonder if it makes a difference if you have a short back or a long back. So anyway, you lift through your back and you lift through the back of your neck.

[17:21]

And your back is by far and away the most important aspect of your posture. It's the main connecting physical link from... top to bottom. And it's the main psychic or emotional or spiritual channel as well. And if you get more experienced in meditation, you discover how through some kind of non-physical channel or territory, openness.

[18:33]

From top to bottom. And from bottom to top. that we experience. So at the same time there's this ideal posture we are informed about and we start to feel. And there's this But so then you accept your posture. You can't always be straightening your posture. And you can't hold yourself, you know,

[19:35]

Geralt doesn't come around with a spray bottle of plastic and once you've got your posture he sprays you and you're there. Buddha wrap, saran wrap or something. Sounds not too bad, actually. Das klingt eigentlich nicht so schlecht. Because always you're coming into your posture. Denn ihr kommt immer in eure Haltung hinein. Even if you stand up, you just stand somewhere, you're always coming into standing. Selbst wenn ihr steht, ihr kommt immer in dieses Stehen hinein. Clyde Digger says the world whirls. And Dogen says mountains, mountain.

[20:53]

Or he says mountains are always walking. And he says don't imagine that the walking of mountains is any different from your walking. This is related. This is a way of speaking in Buddhism, speaking into a physical space, not a mental space. So the mountain's walking is related to the sense of standing, standing. Moment after moment, mountains are becoming mountains. And moment after moment, you're becoming mountains.

[21:54]

Something. You? I don't know. You. So at each moment you stand, you're coming into standing. So every moment you're sitting, you're coming into sitting. And it's this dialogue between the ideal posture of a Buddha and your constant acceptance of this of your own posture and this ideal posture. And sometimes the ideal posture can take hold of us and we feel a wonderful clarity. And deep, deep okayness. This is a new Buddhist American term, deep okayness.

[23:06]

But you know where okay comes from, supposedly. Some... German guy, I don't know what his name was, in Chicago who had a warehouse business or something. Yeah, Lager, ein Lagerhaus. I can't remember the story. But his name was Oskar Knopf or something like that. And every time he signed something, he put his initials in it, and it somehow spread. Okay. Yeah, so you can't blame Americans because we're all Quans. You can't blame the Americans because we're all Quans.

[24:06]

We're all just Europeans with more space. And less goat, no. So sometimes this posture does take hold of us and we find our usual way of thinking and feeling kind of drains out of us. Like water in the sand or something. So then we could say that this posture is again big enough for two.

[25:20]

It's big enough for you and Buddha. Or we could say big enough for your self-nature and your Buddha-nature. Then we can make a connection between Buddha-nature and connectedness. Buddha and between. Buddha nature and connectedness. And self nature and separation. Separateness. So when we do a simple act like sitting, we are all this act which interrupts our habits.

[26:23]

When we make this non-habitual posture a habit, you're immediately in touch, really, though you may not notice it. You're immediately in touch with Buddha-nature and self-nature. Because Buddha-nature isn't some kind of flighty idea. It has to be this world, this body, etc. So this, we could call a wisdom posture. Yeah, and if it's not so easy for you to do or something, you know, you can practice mindfulness.

[27:28]

Which is the... The most basic practice of Buddhism is mindfulness. But if you want a shortcut, And you want condensed mindfulness. And if you want to lift yourself up into the mind of the environment, then this posture is a powerful tool. Now, what else should I say before we stop?

[28:33]

I think the best way to think of mind is as a... liquid or space. Now it's not... A mind is not a liquid or a space. But we need some metaphor, image. Or it's very useful to have a metaphor or image to... to hold. And that's one of the powers of metaphor and image is that you can hold it before you.

[29:38]

And a metaphor or image like mind as space or water or liquid integrates, can integrate many aspects of mind. And it can cut across our thought categories. Cut across levels of mind. And a metaphor, though, you can't hold it unless it's somehow anchored in the possible. Or anchored in your experience in some way. But often a metaphor, while you can hold it because it has a familiar dimension, and it can be anchored in your experience,

[31:00]

way of thinking. It often extends into what isn't your experience. It often extends. Okay. It stands beyond our usual experience. So let's work with an image of mind as a liquid. So I've introduced this evening, mind and environment, connectedness and separation, a posture which integrates and distinguishes these.

[32:12]

And an idea that the mind can be noticed through the image of mind as liquid. Now, I want to now point out that... How can I... Okay, I'm speaking about... We can only... We can only know what we can know. Or we know what we know.

[33:31]

That's quite difficult to know what we don't know. Kindergarten here. Yeah. But we have to assume for example, that this connectedness is outside of ordinary knowing. Because, you know, although we can eat food, etc., but we don't really experience connectedness, even if we're part of it. So what is connectedness? Well, how can we define knowing then?

[34:34]

Knowing is mostly what's repeatable. And repeatability is continuity. And what is consciousness? Consciousness is repeatable knowing. And we have chosen as a culture to emphasize and develop consciousness. developing and emphasizing consciousness. In fact, consciousness is the primary way we experience continuity. And this is something you should notice for yourself. How important continuity is to you.

[35:42]

The continuous experience of yourself. Of this room, of another person. If your friend is too strange and not predictable, you... get nervous. So we emphasize consciousness just exactly because it's repeatable. Or repeatability is, consciousness is the repeatability part of mind. So again, what I would say is there's a streambed of mind.

[36:54]

A streambed of consciousness. And you take four basic practices in Buddhism. The four foundations of mindfulness. You can understand those as trying to create different stream beds. So when you practice mindfulness of the body, you can understand that as trying to find your continuity in your body. When we ask you to bring your attention to your breath. We're asking you to find breath as a stream bed of continuity.

[37:55]

This is an extraordinary act to do. To change how you experience continuity from moment to moment. There are many reasons to bring your attention to your breath. Physicalizes the mind. Weaves mind and body together. And there are many reasons. If you want to integrate mind and body, the absolutely simplest way to do it is bring your mind, your attention to your breath. There are other reasons. The reason I'm emphasizing this evening is that it opens a new stream bed of continuity.

[39:18]

If you are invested, psychologically and emotionally, in the continuity of mind, of thoughts, or even if you're not invested in the continuity of thoughts, But you only know the continuity of thoughts. Then every thought you have is going to have an immense power in your life. A power to... hurt you or help you or whatever.

[40:20]

And in America, you must say something similar. Sticks and stones can break your bones. Sticks and stones can break your bones, but names can never hurt you. You know, I remember we'd think, well, of course, that's obvious if somebody calls you, you dummy, you say sticks and stones and break your bones and anything, you know. But most of us don't learn that our whole lifetime. If your boss calls you a name, you dumb idiot, you don't say, sticks and stones can break my bones.

[41:23]

But if your continuity is in your breath and your body, and not in names and words. The way your boss or somebody says this to your spouse, says this to you, you may not like it, but it's different. Okay, so one of the things I want to speak about during this seminar is this changing of the channels of continuity. changing the stream bed of continuity and how that relates to mind and environment.

[42:31]

That's probably enough for this evening. I think that's enough for tonight. Have you been out in the sun or something? Yeah. It looks like you've been in Florida or Spain or someplace. Vacation land. Thank you very much.

[43:10]

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