Or heart sutras. A sutra actually means to stitch, like in medicine, a suture, at least in English, a suture is to sew up a wound. So if you think of a sutra as giving you a needle and thread for your life, then it's okay. Okay is now a German word. So I think I would have called it the heart and mind teachings.

[01:09]

Or heart wisdom teachings. Well, there's several senses of the word heart in English. I don't know what they are in German, but I'll tell you what they are in English. Maybe it's the same. Heart means the essence or center of something, the heart of the matter. And also heart has the sense, of course, of compassion or love, to do something with heart. And heart also means courage. In fact, the word heart is... Courage is derived from the Latin for heart. So heart has also the sense of a warrior's heart.

[02:23]

And heart also means to do something completely like he did it with his whole heart. To do something with sincerity or completely or gladly. He did it gladly. He did it with heart. Does German have the same senses of the word heart? Is the word heart the same root in German? It is? I think so, yeah. Well, this sutra and this teaching has all of these senses of the word heart. And I'll try to give you a sense of that this evening. And tomorrow and... Sunday, for those of you who will do the seminar, I'll try to give you a sense of the practices of this heart teaching.

[03:55]

So let's just take the word, the heart of the matter or the central or essential teaching, Okay. And then I'll come back to that at the end of this evening, whenever that is. And show you how Buddhism and Zen, how thoroughly they look at such an idea. to give you a sense of the kind of thoroughness of logic that's Buddhist. I don't mind the baby, by the way.

[04:58]

Maybe it bothers her a bit still. It doesn't bother me. I used to do that myself. And still on occasion, too. In fact, there's a connection with the sense of a baby in this sutra. It begins with a phrase, which means homage to the lovely, to the holy. It begins with the phrase, Bestückt die Liebenden und die Liebevollen. It's hard to translate. Yeah.

[05:59]

Well, of course, that translation in itself in English is not accurate from the Sanskrit. So we might as well muddle it in English and then muddle it in German. And it's your job and mine to sort of unmuddle it in Old Greek. So Amish to the lovely and the holy, the word lovely also means woman. And the word holy also means, in Sanskrit, noble. And noble also has the sense, just as you hear it, of knowable. Perhaps at least the original meaning of a noble person was a knowable person.

[07:05]

Perhaps the original meaning of a noble person was a knowable person. Does any of this come across in German? You know? Can you understand it in English? Yes. So he'll lecture, I'll translate. No, no, no, no. So the sense of it is that this heart wisdom teaching is in a larger sense a woman.

[08:06]

And in that large sense the teaching is a womb. And a womb, W-O-M-B, a womb of wisdom. And in Buddhism, wisdom is almost always feminine. So all the men can leave now. Thank you. And we'll get to the heart of the matter. So I don't know whether we're men or women, so you can all stay. So the sense is that as a... A baby like this little baby in the back is a... When you look at a baby, you feel the sense of a perfect existence.

[09:24]

Don't you have that feeling when you look at your little baby? So... So let's just think of a baby as a perfect existence. And the teaching of this sutra is the perfection of existence. Now our Western contemporary society has accumulated a lot of knowledge And we depend on, I think there's a sense of the creativity of our society is generated by genius is generated by people who have genius But in more ancient cultures it was thought that, I'm sure genius wasn't ignored, but it was thought that culture was generated by people of wisdom.

[10:51]

So this teaching of the Heart Sutra is about the generating of wisdom, which means the perfection of existence. So then we have many questions, you know, what is existence, you know. And I would say that Buddhism thinks of existence in three ways. One is that existence itself And more particularly, that you could have the thought of existence.

[11:56]

And that simple thought of existence is considered to be very powerful. And second is the idea of enlightenment. Or the freedom from suffering. And enlightenment is a definitive experience, not an accumulated experience. In other words, you don't have more and more experience. I have had a lot of experience in my life, but that just adds up. It's not a definitive experience. It's not that you gain more and more experience until you reach a certain point. It's a definitive experience. So it's to know in your life the possibility of a definitive experience, something that gives your life definition.

[13:00]

And third is the thought of all beings. For example, in the Buddhist wedding ceremony, Buddhism traditionally doesn't do such things as weddings. I mean, they do them, but it's not basic to Buddhism. So really the marriage ceremony is a kind of ordination ceremony. So I married Martin and Helga, what, two years ago in one day? Yes. So in such a ceremony, I have to whip up a lot of glue.

[14:10]

and then I have to get everybody who's at the wedding to help me mix the glue and then while I'm performing the ceremony and they're not looking because they're so nervous about getting married I sort of reach forward and stick some glue on them And there's still some glue there, I think. Mostly they're creating the glue. But the sense is that to marry somebody you have to to give up just the sense of a small self and take refuge in a larger self of two people as one.

[15:34]

And that's a decision two people make. It's not automatic that you're just sort of automatically married. And two people who live together for several years usually don't feel as married as two people who've taken vows only a month or so ago or a year ago. In other words, there's something about the creative act or the decision whether you make it privately or in a ceremony that makes the relationship different than just kind of living together. And then the sense in the marriage ceremony is if you're going to give up your smaller selves and make one larger self of two people, why stop there?

[16:50]

You might as well include everyone in your marriage. So the sense is you extend that feeling to you and you and you, so there's a sense of a larger wedding. Now, when I say give up your smaller self, it doesn't mean you cease to be a separate self. It's hard to say it. You keep, you remain a separate self and you create a larger self. So this heart wisdom teaching is a kind of marriage ceremony of how to wed yourself to all beings. And the main trick is to be able to look at suffering.

[18:05]

And Avalokitesvara, who is the protagonist of the sutra, is one who looks and sees suffering and in effect accepts it, in effect, We can see that seeing in two ways. One is the acceptance of existence as it is, and the other is the perfection of existence. So these two things which in our minds and language are different are felt to be the same. So I'm sure when they see their baby They accept their baby just as, is it he or she?

[19:29]

They accept this baby just as she is. At the same time, they see the perfection of existence. Now, that's fairly easy to do with a baby. When people get older, it's harder to do. So then to be able to do it becomes wisdom. It's just parental love when you have your own little baby. When you can do it when you're older and with older people, it's wisdom. And this wisdom is not easy to come to. And Buddhism doesn't make things... I was going to say Buddhism doesn't make things simple.

[20:47]

That's not quite right. The practices that you do moment by moment are always simple. But the understanding behind the practices is not simple. Or it's first-generational, second-generational, third-generational thinking about something. So I'll give you an example, which I've mentioned two or three times in this trip here in Europe. But I'll talk about a development of it a little bit this time. Okay.

[21:50]

So someone asked, or my teacher said, Suzuki Roshi, my teacher Suzuki Roshi said, that the first thing he noticed when he came to America, to the West, that people did things with one hand. For example, if I pass this to him, people tended to pass things like that with one hand. And the sense in Buddhism, in Buddhist culture and in much of Asia, would be to do it more this way. I mean, we don't make it artificial, but it's a feeling of doing it with two hands. So I turn my body and give him this. And they actually usually make their dishes so you have to use two hands.

[23:10]

It's one of the reasons their cups don't have handles because they think it's impolite to do things with one hand. So if you're going to pick up a Japanese or Chinese teacup or rice bowl, you have to pick it up with one hand and then put it in the other hand and so forth. And the eating bowl is part of the eating utensil. So we basically in the West eat off the table. Because our dishes are extensions of the table. And the emphasis there is that somehow the world exists out there and you're just eating off the surface of it.

[24:21]

And the sense in Buddhism is the world doesn't exist out there. When you pick it up, it exists. So these small differences, which people, most Japanese people, Chinese people, don't have any idea. They just pick up their eating bowls. But it's based on activating the whole body. As they have developed a language system which uses both parts of the brain, and our language system uses one part of the brain. And they have developed a language system that not only uses both parts of the brain, but also requires the participation of the whole body. Because you can't, for instance, if you're a scholar, you cannot learn 30,000 characters with your brain.

[25:37]

So if you ask a Japanese or Chinese person for a particular character, they'll say, oh yeah, you know, They even create the paper. Because their intelligence is systemic and is in their hands and body, not just in their brain. This all arises from a different sense of what the world is. So my teacher used to say, experience things through your body, by yourself. When I was here last year, I spoke to you about Bergson, for instance, the philosopher, emphasizing lived time.

[26:41]

And I contrasted that with Buddhism, where it's clearly the emphasis is on lived space. All right. So when I... So this isn't just... So not having handles on your bowl, so you can pick it up with one hand, isn't just a matter of politeness. It's a matter of viewing your body as energy, heat and consciousness. As energy and intelligence.

[27:52]

So if you view your body as energy and intelligence, you develop a culture which utilizes your body, utilizes your energy intelligence through your body and your mind. Which was the last part? That utilizes a culture which utilizes your energy and intelligence. That's good. Okay. So it's not there automatically, it's there when you do it. Like the marriage is there not automatically, but when you do it. And so compassion is there not automatically, I just have a big heart. It's there when you do it and you know the craft of how to realize it. So they make their life, they design the culture of their life so that they utilize, they use the energy and intelligence of their body and mind.

[29:22]

All right, so when I see my body as energy, feel my body as energy, then I do my body as energy. So when I give something to Gunther, I'm giving myself to Gunther, not the watch. The watch is an excuse, a kind of focus of energy, to pass energy to him. So again, it's almost like there was a sense of a light here. And when I turn toward Gupta, I direct this light.

[30:24]

Maybe it's only a flashlight and maybe it's a searchlight. And I direct that energy with my hands. And that's, if any of you study Aikido and so forth, that's all part of it, how you direct energy with your hands. Okay. All right, so that's fairly simple. It's just the way everybody in Buddhist culture tends to think. And it comes naturally, so to speak. then we can ask who, when you pass yourself, when I pass myself to Gunther, Who am I passing to Gunther?

[31:38]

What kind of existence am I passing to Gunther? And then I immediately have a responsibility. This poor guy is getting my existence. But already when you have the sense, like tonight if you go have some coffee and you pass somebody the sugar, and you have the feeling, oh, tonight I'm gonna pass myself as well as the sugar. So here I am, sugar. A sweetheart. When you feel that way, already you feel... that you feel better about the existence you have and that you are and that you're passing.

[32:59]

In other words, the thought of passing your existence to someone changes your existence. Do you see that? Do you feel that? I mean, if you think, oh, I'm passing this sugar, salt, to someone, that it changes your feeling of your own existence. So already this is quite powerful. Okay, now, Buddhism develops that idea, is what is this energy you're passing? What are these energies which are passing? What are the energies you're passing? We can all translate. So, then you develop certain points.

[34:12]

Like here and here. And here. And here. Yeah, da. And da. Da, da. Da, da. And you begin to sense your energy in these points. And then you actually practice visualizing these points in another person. Until you feel like, I can connect this point with the same point on him. And I can connect this point and this point with the same points on you.

[35:14]

And when you develop... Now, so this is like a decision, like deciding to get married. And in this decision, you're treating your body as a deity. Because the logic of Buddhism is the logic of a creator. Buddhism is very logical. A kind of logic at least. But that logic is you have the thought and logic of the thought And you create something and then you live that creation. And that's what a deity does. A deity is one who creates something and then lives the creation. And I'm telling you this just to give you a feeling for this heart wisdom teaching.

[36:23]

And to give you the example that if you begin to view your body as energy and you view your body as And viewing your body as energy, you begin to know different kinds of energies. Now someone at one lecture I was giving said, this is very complicated. And I said, well, to me, German is very complicated. And for you, German is quite common. And this teaching I'm giving you actually isn't so complicated. It's really a matter of familiarity. So if you become just from tonight more and more familiar with your own body as energy just by thinking about it that way and then beginning to awaken a thinking about

[37:34]

Another person, your other friends, your friends as energy. And not just somebody you love or your sexual partner, but everybody, you feel them as energy. So just become familiar with everyone and yourself as energy. Just become familiar with it. You'll become more sensitive to your own energies and the energies of other people. Okay. And then you can begin to have this kind of sense, almost naturally, of the energy connections of your body with another person. So the more you develop that, the more you're thinking of the perfection of existence, not just the acceptance of existence. So in that sense, on the one hand, I'm passing myself to Gunther.

[38:57]

And if I have more the sense of the perfection of existence, I begin to pass the perfection of existence to Gunther. And this would be considered a high form of compassion. Because if you can pass the perfection of existence to someone, what greater gift can you give them? And if you can awaken in them the sense of the perfection of their own existence, what greater gift can they receive? And give back to you. But all this begins again with the warrior's heart of being able to look at the world as it is. So Avalokiteshvara again is one who can look at the world as it is.

[40:14]

And because he can see the suffering of the world and not flinch from it, not hide from it and see his or her own suffering the possibility of knowing your own energies is there. Because if you hide from your own suffering, you'll never know your own energies. So, as I say, if you're depressed, you don't say, I don't want to be depressed. Or, of course, you say, I don't want to be depressed. But you also say, what is the energy in this depression? How can I find the energy of just how I'm feeling now without discriminating?

[41:24]

So this is a kind of open-heartedness to the world and to yourself. An open, courageous heartedness. So it's not just so sort of nice thinking. It's kind of tough thinking. Or maybe tough is the right word, courageous or open or strong thinking. All right. Now, The word that's translated as heart teaching or heart sutra means actually both heart and mind. The distinction, and if anything, it means the word which is often translated as mind means more heart than it means mind.

[42:38]

Okay. So instead of identifying with... I'm sorry, but I have to give you all this background, but be patient. So to get to... If your identity is formed or you identify with your thoughts as you, This in no way can be wisdom. You can have a lot of knowledge and information, but it's not wisdom. This heart-mind means to be able to find your identity or move your identity out of your thoughts into a kind of feeling here. Okay.

[43:53]

So, how does one have the courage or strength to look at the suffering of this world, at your own impermanence, And the likely impermanence of the world. Now maybe we're not going to have nuclear war. But we're doing such damage to the planet, I don't think my grandchildren may have a place to live. Or it's possible anyway. So we're faced with the impermanence of our culture, our civilization and all of us.

[44:57]

So if you can see that and feel it and your own impermanence, your own death, In a relaxed, almost casual way. But consequential way, I mean, but casual. Do you know the feeling I'm trying to give you? Everything may be lost. Everything may be destroyed. Oh, well, it's okay. I'll try to do something, but it's okay. And the willingness to accept the world as it is, even if it's terrible. So, So there's an idea in Buddhism which is expressed as a thought for 10,000 years.

[46:11]

So it means you can hold a thought or take a thought and hold it. And this one thought is also called one bright jewel. So the jewel in Buddhism which is held in some Buddha figure's hand is one way of saying this This thought or feeling, and I think I can give it more character for you if I call this thought a dream.

[47:17]

In other words, like if you have a dream at night and you wake up in the morning, you can feel the dream. Now you may not remember the details of the dream, or they may be unimportant, but you can feel the dream. If you want to practice with that dream, you can see if you can keep the feeling for several days. And see how it affects you and your thinking during the day. And some understanding may arise from the dream.

[48:20]

You understand what I mean? I think that's clear. Okay, so if you take this thought of the acceptance of existence, as we accept this little baby, and we accept this world as it is, with the killing of all those four Chinese students and workers a few days ago, at the same time you can have you can have, without losing, the feeling of the perfection of existence. Now, if you can combine those two feelings, the acceptance of existence, including the killing of those Chinese boys and girls, young men and women, without losing the sense of the perfection of existence, and you can bring those together in your heart-mind,

[49:29]

And you can retain that feeling or dream the way you retain the dream of the night. In other words, imagine you can get, as you get the feeling of a dream, imagine you can get the feeling of of existence as it is. Sometimes wonderful, sometimes... And at the same time you can get the feeling of like looking at that baby, the perfection of existence. And you can feel that perfection of existence in the energy of your own body. And it's like the feeling of a dream. We can say the dream of the thought of enlightenment.

[51:02]

Or the dream of a Buddha. Or the dream when we see a new baby born. And you can hold that dream, that thought dream, like a jewel. And like two people choose to marry each other, this doesn't come naturally. You choose this dream. If out of your maturity and your intelligence and your experience out of your experience and your intelligence you choose this dream of the thought of enlightenment of all beings,

[52:06]

this dream of the acceptance of existence and the perfection of existence and you can feel it in your chest like a kind of toothache or a heartache or being in love and you can keep that feeling That's called one bright jewel. Or called the thought of enlightenment. And so if you can keep that like you have a baby in you, This jewel or the thought of 10,000 years and you can pass that thought to others that jewel you can create a culture of 10,000 years in which the perfection of existence is possible.

[53:12]

So it's called the heart-mind teaching. And this one bright jewel is another name for emptiness. Not emptiness as we understand it in our language, but emptiness as it's understood in Buddhism. So you see why I didn't want the baby to leave. And also I said in the beginning the heart of the matter or coming to the essence of something So in a simple sense, this means the central teaching or the most important teaching.

[54:39]

But in a more developed sense, the third or fourth generation sense, it's not just the heart of the teaching or the center of the teaching. You turn the teaching into a thought, a dream, and make it your heart. Then you hold that thought and nourish that thought and its presence in you and your body and mind and in your actions begins to change your actions The way a baby in a couple's life changes them. So Buddhism, as I said, is very logical. But it carries the logic to a tremendous thoroughness.

[55:58]

From a thought of enlightenment or a thought of existence, noticing that we exist, and then turning that noticing that we exist into the perfection of existence, then turning that into a feeling which you keep in your body like being in love, then the whole teaching becomes a womb in which Buddhas are born. or which in existence can be perfected within the acceptance of existence as it is. Anyway, so this is pretty basic Buddhist teaching I just gave you.

[57:02]

I hope you get a feeling for what I mean. And as I said, tomorrow on Sunday we'll try to be more practical. And we'll figure out how much experience you guys have sitting. And we'll sit a little more than the least experienced want. I'm known as the softy Roshi, so don't worry. Let's take a break for 10 minutes or 15 minutes. And after the break, And everything that you experience you can call thought forms.

[58:13]

So perception is the essential craft in the midst of thought forms. That's fairly easy to say. But probably it took thousands of years before that could be said. And it could be emphasized as a teaching. There's some Buddhist saying, all most people look to, all most people look to or look for, is the achievement of the future. And they ignore the sweating horses of the past. The sweating horses of the past.

[59:30]

Like the creation of a language. Or of this city. Or of this teaching. There's a story of Bojui. It was one of the most famous poets of China. And he went to visit a Zen master and found the Zen master sitting in a tree out behind the temple. He was an old man. So Bodhidharma said, I came to ask you a question about Buddhism. You've been practicing for many decades. Can you give me some teaching? And the old man sitting in the tree said, avoid evil and do good. And Bojui said, even a three-year-old knows that.

[60:49]

And the old Zen master said, but even an old man has a hard time with it. Maybe that's why he was sitting in the tree. Yes? Do you remember those four 5,000 students that you killed recently? And, well, I think you have experienced sadness your own. So how do you deal with that and other feelings in this context you're just showing us? It sounds very abstract to me if you just teach it. Just... Well, the sense... Well, it's not abstract.

[61:54]

When I say feel it, I mean you really feel it. And one of the advantages of learning to sit, as I always point out, is really learning to sit so you know you can sit and not move. You can open yourself to feelings that you wouldn't if you were afraid of what you might do. So sitting gives you more and more experience of being open to your feelings, if you practice the Zen way at least. So more and more you just, you don't even think about things, you feel them and allow those feelings, whether it's sadness or anger, to pervade you.

[63:21]

And the more you let that kind of feeling penetrate you, the more soft your body gets actually, or pliant your body gets. Yes. Please repeat. What? Sorry. The answer, please. Could you repeat the answer about sitting? What I just said? About moving while sitting. Oh, not moving while sitting. Why don't you repeat it to me? Why don't you repeat that for him? What did you understand? So much as you understood. What did you understand? I didn't understand the part... ...where it was about... ...that you don't have to move... ...or that you don't need to move.

[64:49]

Is that true? Isn't it so... ...that the force to move is strong? She didn't get the point about whether you must not move or have to move. Isn't it that there is a force for movement? Yes. And then? Well, this sitting, this practice of sitting is considered a shortcut. You sit down in the midst of your life. And you sit through things. The feeling is to let things happen to you. What's the expression now?

[65:58]

At least in English we say, he stood the pain. So this is like you sit the pain. And if you're going to accept life, accept existence as it is, it's not easy to do. And to try to do that, Buddhist teaching has adopted Indian yoga as a way to try to do that. So the Buddha himself started practicing when three things happened. One, his son was born and he created an existence.

[67:15]

Two, he saw for the first time the suffering of the world, old age, sickness and death. And three, he saw a yogi, not just a religious person, but a yogi, who in the midst of the suffering was serene and calm. And he had the thought, I don't know what existence is and I've just created an existence. And I see this suffering in the world. So he didn't know what to do. And he did what was the custom in India, which is to become a yogi. And he went and sat down in the midst of his life.

[68:22]

Like if you run for a bus, you have a hard time solving a calculus problem. And if you sit down at a desk more calmly, you can work on the calculus problem. But if you want to see around the corner of your culture and your own thinking, Then you have to sit down and let the thoughts and feelings both pass through you and spread, have more space. As Suzuki Roshi said, to experience things through your body by yourself. Is that an ambience or a fire?

[69:29]

Ambulance, fire engine, one or the other. Whenever I hear them, it's a sort of, I have a, my thoughts are, it's a kind of moral problem. One feeling I have is I hope it's not my house. Yes. And the next feeling I have, well, I hope it's not someone else's house. And the third is, I'm glad someone's trying to help. And there's no exact resolution to that. What's the false alarm? Yeah, that's what I think my whole life is.

[70:49]

I'm trying to forget about it. So your ego, you know, is always trying to, um, protect you. And this identity glue protects you by controlling what you perceive and keeping your perceptions mostly in the realm of thought. And so it excludes things that will disturb you or threaten the ego.

[71:55]

So there's many things you have to dream about because they're outside of your ego or personality. And then you have to have some practice or experience to bring the teaching or wisdom or knowledge of the dream into your personality and identity. So the ego is always trying to make you identify with thought and thought that it controls. So it doesn't want you to do zazen. So it always thinks of something you should be doing. It's really important that you do this or that. Or that you think about this or that. The world won't get along without you, so start thinking. So to practice, you just have to sit down sometimes and see if you cannot let your thinking make you move.

[73:08]

And once you can do that, many emotions and feelings will come out. It's really just a technique. But a technique which gives you lots of strength, really. Something else? Another time the sentence you didn't get. I think and I don't move my tone. my body or my clay?

[74:17]

Adam? Is it I don't do the thoughts? Well, first of all, you don't move, you don't scratch. Yeah. And then second, you see what you can do about your thoughts. But the basic Zen practice is not to do anything about your thoughts, Except not invite them to tea. Okay. Something else, some other person? Yes. The suffering will boost your practice. And which form of suffering will have the greatest effect?

[75:23]

Do you think we have a choice? Which thought to choose for concentration for a topic of concentration and contrast with just sitting thinking this thinking that and this developing this ease and then losing the power and not losing what power which kick will give him

[76:59]

the power to go on. Which kick? Which thought? He said kick. He was sitting for a long time. He would think about different subjects and slowly lose his… get into a kind of very serene mode and lose interest in it and passion for it, lose the power of sitting. What should he do to get a kick to do it, to continue with? Yeah, yeah. I understand. Are you coming tomorrow, from tomorrow? OK. Because what you ask is very fundamental.

[78:06]

So much of what we'll talk about tomorrow and practice will be various responses to what you brought up. but in particular not knowing your practice or how you practiced, I can't respond to why you lost the power of your sitting. but in general the emphasis in Zen practice and in Dzogchen and Mahamudra in Tibetan Buddhism is not to concentrate on a particular thought although that may be useful to do in some stages.

[79:22]

And koan practice and the bright jewel practice I gave you is a form of concentrating on a thought. But in general, Zen and Dzogchen and Mahamudra practice emphasize not concentrating on the thought or a thought, as the fundamental practice, but concentrating on the field of thought in which there may or may not be thoughts. Okay, that's enough for now. That has a lot to do with your spine and your energy and all kinds of things.

[80:33]

Okay, one or two more. Yes. You were talking about the wedding ceremony where you need a lot of glue to apply. Could you comment on that aspect of human nature, why this glue is necessary? Among my friends, there are two couples. One of them is married for now about 20 years. They are going to divorce, and I see all the suffering that is happening there. And I also think of another couple. I know they have much of this glue, but it's pure jealousy, and they are living like in prison. He talked about the fact that during a ceremony he needs a lot of glue to glue the two together. And I prayed for him to say something about the aspect of human nature that this glue obviously makes necessary. I know this is something I thought about. This is something I've thought about but I don't think that I should necessarily talk about it here with everyone because you have the pure existence of two people living as one

[82:11]

which is possible and can be refreshed. And then you have the institution of marriage on which society depends and much of the life and ownership of property and distribution of resources is based on this institution. and affections and expectations of your friends and family And you have that development institution through centuries. And you have the fact that most of us are living much longer. And have more complex ways of choosing appropriate partners as we get older. And institutions always lag behind the needs of people.

[83:41]

They both anticipate and lag behind simultaneously. So it's a very complicated question. But in any case, it's why we need glue or ceremonies or vows, and how to use vows in your life, and how a single perception itself is a kind of unacknowledged vow. like you see a tree and you've actually made a kind of agreement or vow that the tree is there so the sense of thinking and vowing are very almost the same idea

[84:49]

And whether we see a tree or we see treeing, or we see a balm or a balming, is actually the vow that the culture has placed on our perception. So poison and medicine are very similar. So the way in which our thinking is already vowing It's wisdom to use the poison of a vow as the medicine, as an antidote. So it gives you a playing field. And a playing field of your existence.

[86:28]

Which you can play in more freely, I think, if you learn how to sit. And open your heart. So let's stop, okay? Thanks. Can you hear us in the back okay? So prajna is wisdom. Prajna bedeutet weisheit. And wisdom again is not a state Like an old man is wise or an old woman is wise because they're old. Wisdom in Buddhism is defined as a state of mind. A state of mind. In Buddhism, wisdom is defined as a state of mind.

[87:30]

from which your perceptions and activity will... a state of mind in which your perceptions and your activity arise in such a way that they're characterized by wisdom. To give you a feeling for this, again, I was talking with a... friend of mine, Francisco Varela. I was staying in Paris at his apartment. And he's a scientist and a Buddhist. And he has a book out that's in Germany called The Tree of Knowledge, I believe. that I guess some people know. It seems like you. Anyway, one of the two areas that interest him in science is immunology. is the study of the immune system and the immune system is usually we think of in a simple way as protecting us from disease and he

[89:19]

His view is that this is just a subsidiary function of the immune system. The immune system is actually our biological identity. It's what defines us from the rest of the world. And when your immune system stops being able to define you and maintain a separation from the rest of the world, you will soon decay and crumble. Yeah. you fall apart, in other words. But the immune system is not a fixed state.

[90:28]

It's something that's arising on each moment. And always responding to circumstances. And responding to your state of mind. It's been very clearly, I believe, demonstrated That if you're depressed, for instance, you're much more likely to get a cold. Your immune system is depressed too. So your biological definition as separate from the world and your ability to maintain that definition is intimately part of your state of mind. And in Buddhism has two terms, rising mind and sinking mind.

[91:42]

And rising mind...

[91:43]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_69.49