Now, what if this body came to life? What makes it alive is what we call a body in Buddhism. And what makes it alive? You know, it's energy, it's brightness, the food it eats, its parents, its friends, its work. You can't say where the boundary is of that which makes it alive. I'm alive because I'm sitting here talking to you and waving my arms about and so forth. So, Dogen says, when you really look at this, it's the entirety of the coming and going of birth and death which is our true human body. When you really experience this sense of everything all at once as your body, then you're beginning to understand what he means that the coming and going of birth and death is also where we're liberated.

[01:08]

Okay, so let's go back to the historical Buddha. The true body of this historical Buddha was the coming and going of birth and death at that time. which has no exact boundaries. At that time, in that space, it included his disciples. And his body included his disciple's body. And we understand lineage to mean that also continues in time up to now. So the Dharma body, Buddha Dharma Sangha, The dharma body means the continuation of the true human body of the Buddha.

[02:37]

And the teaching is also called the Dharma. Because the teaching is that situation which allows us to awaken our Dharma body. Just as it's amazing a Chinese person can have a baby with a, you know, German person. We've lived separately for so many centuries and yet it's quite surprising to me that you can have babies like that. They say it takes only one, let's see, they say it takes 200 years about something, I can't remember exactly, 200 years for one Portuguese sailor's genes to be spread throughout the Chinese population.

[03:52]

And it would probably hold true for a German sailor, too. Maybe 175 years. I live in Germany. I want to, you know. Anyway. So in like manner, there's a kind of mental gene that also is distributed in the population. It's not just our physical body which is distributed. Our subtle body is distributed. And whether you know it or not, if we take this practice seriously, the subtle body of the Buddha is here.

[05:04]

In this sense, it doesn't mean some Asian person. It means our potentiality to know this subtle body of our human nature. Yes, so the Buddha is a historical person. But what is a historical person? What made that person alive? What constituted his realization? That's present in this world. Giving such long answers, I'm sorry. Oh, and I'm supposed to stop. I'm not translating that. So let me try to say something.

[06:20]

What I'd really like to do now is have some more questions. It's fun. But, you know, we have to follow the rules to some extent. I mean, we made up the rules. So we need to make up following them too. But I'm going to break the rule for a few minutes here. I'm trying to understand with you what this place can be. Burned down in 1915. And rebuilt as an anthroposophical center. Kinderheim. Where... Geralt brought his mother here and she said, oh, I lived here once.

[07:33]

And Geralt did his first sashin here. So some funny history in this building. And now we want this building and this praxis, this true human body of this building. What gives this building life? Give life to our original body and our original life. our original mind, and our original life that supports our true human body and mind.

[08:36]

Now this is going to be different than working for Sony Corporation in Berlin. Some other body has to come out when you do that, or you'll get fired. This is okay. But we shouldn't lose touch. The idea is to not lose touch with our true human body. Yeah, and I want to talk maybe another time about this tradition of mountain asceticism that's wrapped up in our practice. Mountain asceticism To go into the mountains and do ascetic practice. It's not by accident that we chose this place in the Black Forest and in these mountains.

[09:42]

Now, Although the world is not contained in our senses, it's our senses which reveal the world to us. And our senses which come together in... a unity. The old meaning of common sense was a sense common to the senses. You see why I haven't learned German?

[10:43]

But I can barely speak English. I can barely say what I want to in English and then he can barely say it in German. I feel, have you ever seen somebody try to fight their way out of a paper bag? They used to do it on television in the early days, in the 50s. Now we have plastic bags, so if you die, you die in a plastic bag. But they'd make a huge paper bag and they'd put somebody in it and they'd say, fight your way out of it. And no matter how big and strong the person is, you can't do it because it keeps moving every time you hit it. That's how I feel in the middle of English language.

[11:53]

I'm trying to make English... I'm trying to break through the language and I can't quite do it. So what they tried to do in the Chinese system that was brought to Japan Is they tried to move the physical locations outside of just a visual realm. So they tried to create a system where each building had a different sound. And each time of day in that building had a different sound.

[13:24]

So when you heard that drum, you knew it was that building and such and such a time of day. And when you heard that building over there, that was that building. that bell, you knew, oh, that's that building, not that building. So the whole group of many buildings in a mandala kind of pattern was always present physically to you in different ways through the sounds of the bell. So the buildings were related to these musical instruments, these Buddhist musical instruments. Which I would like us to have more of here. I think it would be important to bring it into the practice.

[14:29]

But it's so expensive we can't do it. No one really would understand the expense anyway. For instance, these bells, one of these good bells like we have in Zendo, or the wooden mokugyo, that's the best we could do is to buy those. No, I'm not really talking about the money here, but I just want to... I'm talking about the money to indicate to you the effort, because it was money for them, too. It wasn't cheap for them. They would put as much money practically into the musical instruments in each building as building the building. And let me explain why it's so expensive then. And we can't go out and do it tomorrow.

[15:57]

And we can't go out and just get the equipment tomorrow. It's taking us almost a year or two years to pay for what we bought. And the Japanese don't do things on credit. So although they're very sweet to me and they're sympathetic, but still I feel, we should pay them soon. For instance, one of these bells is made, they start with a flat piece of bronze and some person sits and hammers. it out into a bell. So this bell is partly machine-made and partly handmade. But if it was Only handmade, instead of costing $3,000 or $4,000, it would cost $30,000.

[17:04]

I would rather have the bell than a Mercedes, but I don't have either. I said that to somebody and they said to me, have you ever heard how the door of a Mercedes sounds when you shut it? Okay, so these sounds you're going to hear, I'm going to have you play this in a minute. All right. Huge bells. And they have huge drums. And the drums cost $30,000 to $50,000. Why do they cost so much? Same reason the mokugyo cost so much, because they have to be made from one piece of wood. So to make a big drum, you need a tree about this big.

[18:21]

That's a 600-year-old tree. There simply aren't many of those left. Just a piece of wood, just the wood out of the forest, that big, costs as much as an automobile. So, anyway, we can find our own way here. We don't have to imitate them. But what I'm pointing out is that they really made an effort to create an environment that opened you to another sensorial world. created something that opens us to another world of perception. because it was a process of educating people.

[19:29]

Because there's the smart ones and the dumb ones and the scholarly ones and the ones who have meditation skill. But we want to create a common body, not just the smart ones or the talented ones at meditation. So these folks were wise enough to know they needed the energy of the common body They couldn't do it just by themselves, no matter how smart they were. So here they're chanting the Heart Sutra, which we chanted in the morning. This is a CD a friend of Gural's made from a record I had from a heiji that I made into a tape.

[20:31]

And this friend of Gerald and Gisela's made it, you know, improved it actually. And then, strangely enough, he put Gerald in my picture on the surface of the CD. But it's definitely not us chanting. No. At one point during the chanting, you'll hear a very big drum go boom off in the distance. And I'll put up my hand so you can notice it. And that's in a different building. That's a drum from a different building.

[21:46]

So you have these overlapping sounds. Okay. So will you put it on? And I'll stop it. We'll just listen to a part. Let me say at the end They are taking out at the end of the Heart Sutra, chanting the Heart Sutra, they take out the physical sutras and they're opening them in the air like accordions and closing them. And it's quite noisy and they make a lot of kind of very good fun shouting. And I'll explain something about that tomorrow, but I won't explain it now. So I'm doing this to give you some atmosphere of what monk life is like in contrast to lay life. Can you turn it up? How high can we get it?

[22:47]

Okay. The mokugyo, the wooden fish, takes two people to hold the wooden... You hit it. Of course, you can't really reproduce it, but it's outside the range of electronic reproduction. We'll sound like this one day.

[24:01]

Thank you. It's a helicopter. That's the problem. Thank you.

[25:32]

Thank you for watching. Okay. Sorry. It's okay. Thank you.

[28:14]

Thank you. There's about a hundred people all over the city. I'm gonna put him in the boxes.

[30:23]

I love you. I love you. I love you. Thank you very much. Thank you for translating. You're welcome. Good afternoon. So what would you like to talk about? Now that you've been talking all afternoon, I'd like to hear also just something about what you discussed, you know, not a report, but just share the discussion with me, yes?

[32:01]

I would also like to hear what was discussed in your groups, maybe a short summary. You're talking so much before, why are you tongue-tied now? The cat went, we have an expression in English, the cat's got your tongue. That's why Charlie just walked by. So I've got a bunch of them. Yes. Yes. Towards the end of our discussion I had a big experience of what came out of our discussion. That we got tips and ideas in the seminar how to come to ourselves.

[33:17]

But in the end, it's up to us what we are using in our everyday life. Everybody takes something else home. To their help is that everybody takes something home Maybe has the courage to draw it out I hope some of you take the same things home. It makes our next meeting easier. But I know what you mean. And we each apply it in our own way. Yes.

[35:01]

I've been in the same room. We've discussed a lot about delusions we are trapped in, and now Sukhiroshi writes that you can realize the true mind in your delusion. And that's a question I would like to hear a bit more about that from you. We have... we talked about images of oppression, in which we are constantly trapped in everyday life. And now Suzuki Roshi is writing that in the midst of these images of oppression, a true spirit can also be seen in the texts that we have read. And I think that's a very If you see the contrast between your delusion, so if you see your delusion, you've already realized true mind.

[36:14]

Might not last long. But that's, you know, that's part of what he means. But, you know, Wayne Codling, who's somebody I've practiced with for many years, and is planning to move to Creston, he thinks, I don't know how... Yeah. But he has worked with... He has worked with... very disturbed people for a long time. And he's a very big, strong guy when he is. So he's given these guys who tend to like to break people's arms and stuff. In fact, this guy broke his previous caretaker's arm.

[37:21]

So Wayne has had this idea to bring these guys to Creston for the longest time. Bill and Ron. Bill and Ron. Yeah, are the two guys. And two caretakers. The other caretaker is named Dave. Dave. Yeah, not just David. But Dave is himself, you know. Dave, for example, he ran the entire length of the Wall of China.

[38:25]

That's 6,000 kilometers, I believe. And the Chinese authorities about halfway through tried to stop him. But he ran away. He's... He's also run the length of Japan and he's now planning to run some unbelievable place. It takes two guys like this to control these two, Ron and Bill. Dave can outrun him and... And Wayne can out-beat them. So he brought them anyway to Crestone this last week.

[39:35]

So he wanted me to talk with him. Talk about delusion. These guys could not see around their delusions at all. And I enjoyed talking to them. They're very good-hearted guys. And their biggest pain, particularly Bill's, is he... sometimes knows he's not normal and wants to be, and then he really hurts. But, you know, what Wayne wanted to see is what the atmosphere of Crestone did to these guys. And, uh, They liked it very much and were on very good behavior.

[40:48]

They complimented everyone and flirted with everyone. So be happy you can see your delusion. If you're happy? Be happy that you can see your delusion. Then there's some hope. How do you cope with the pain? It hurts. Which pain? You know, when you say that, what's his name? Bill. Bill. You know, he realizes it's not normal. It hurts. Yeah. Well, let's talk about your pain, not Bill's. That's Bill's problem. That's what makes actually there's something touching about Bill because he does try to cope with it.

[41:53]

Well, I think in our discussion I hope that we'll come back to a general picture of practice which will relate to what you said. I'm much more awake in the afternoon than in the morning. Because I just flew in right before the seminar. So I'm still somewhat jet-lagged. So it seems like morning now. What else? Yes. in our group we talked about delusion too and about the problem how to compare with delusions so another theme was what you told us the different

[43:27]

persons we live in, we compare to. So the way how people of us have the real life with work and family and so on and that it's hope I say it the right way, it mostly helped to be here and to feel some kind of solid basic and the second thing was to see that the way you are here is with this kind of humor and deep I can now call it knowledge. This will be easier. This is a big way. So what's the theme for us to discuss? If I forget something, yes, sure. In German, in our group, the theme was also this... It was also a topic that made it clear to everyone that he lives in different people, in different ways, in the profession, in the family.

[44:46]

And that it can be a help, that there is a deep connection Thank you. We were talking a lot about sangha, a lot of various aspects. One person, for example, expressed that she was inspired by the idea of sangha to bring together some group which does artistic exchange, which has some of this idea of sangha, which has a different background. And then several people expressed their gratitude that Sangha is possible in their everyday life.

[45:54]

They have a sitting group, and several others expressed they wish to have one, and how to start one, how to do that. It was also expressed that the Sangha to have Sanger here with monastic people, and then to have somewhere else that this is very true. Deutsch. Ja, Sie haben unter verschiedenen Aspekten über Sanger geredet. Also, in dem Aspekt ist zum Beispiel ein ausgedrückter Dossier, eine Art, If a group, for example, is interested in working together with other people to have an artistic, artistic exchange, under the idea of this sangha, it can be expressed that they support her as her sangha, her sitting group, because she has problems in her daily life and the wish of others to have a sitting group and how to start something like that.

[47:11]

We have a question which came up in our group. It was how to... What is... the importance of the way of dealing with emotions in Buddhism. It was asked that sometimes it seems to be necessary to feel emotions very deeply or act out emotions in order to come to some clarity. And sometimes sitting practice seems to suppress the emotions.

[48:16]

For some people it expresses that it helps to have the emotions and feel the emotions. Others, including myself, express that it sometimes seems to hinders the emotional process, which wants to act itself out, because it needs some energy, some acting in it, to produce those emotions. When you do this vizazen, then it sometimes takes this energy out. Whether this is helpful? Yes, I understand what you mean. German? Yes, another question that also comes up in Baden-Württemberg is about feelings. It is so that some have said that Musasen helps them to feel their feelings very deeply. Others and I have said that it is also the case that sometimes feelings seem to be suppressed.

[49:21]

where the energy that goes into feelings, normally in order to provoke them, goes into this sasa, which is the spirit that calms and stabilizes it, but sometimes seems to be useless or helpless, also to go through feelings, to really have it to act out. Yes. So let me come back to that, but after I hear anybody else who wants to tell me what about their discussion. I don't have to hear all of them, but if there's something particular you'd like to add, I'd like to hear, yes. In our group there was this one question which I personally have as well.

[50:36]

Can you connect the sasen practice with the everyday life, with every situation in my everyday activity? So there is this form in this protected area here. So there is this form in this protected area here. And how can I bring this form into my everyday life and to have that concentration during the day?

[51:49]

Okay, shall I start saying something about these things? Gerard told us an expression from Durkheim that if you want you can tell it. Say it to me. Okay. I'll try it. [...] I'll try But you should be aware 24 hours a day so that the chain is not lost. If you are not aware for a second or a minute, then the whole chain is lost. And I understood it very differently what Durkheim said.

[53:02]

He said that with every zazen you add one pearl bead pearl pearl to the whole bead and so you do it every day and the bead gets longer and longer and if you don't do it for a while you're not losing one every day you're losing almost everything quite quickly So he wanted to support the notion that you do something on a very regular base unless you're really sick where you can't do it. And it was also very important for him that you have this practice in your everyday life for 24 hours a day. He didn't allow any excuse. There was no excuse to not practice. Yeah, that's true.

[54:05]

My question is, is this possible in day life, in job and so forth? Sometimes in job, when I'm washing, I lose concentration. Sometimes it's a problem. Sometimes I think I don't want to be one-pointed every time. You scare people. Do you speak German? Yes, I do. On the one hand, it's difficult for me when I'm in a hurry or in a job to keep my concentration up. You want to be one-pointed. When I read while I eat my rolls, that's okay. Yeah, the only point I don't agree with Graf von Durkheim is that I don't think you lose all the beats.

[55:15]

In fact, I've been quite surprised by... a number of people I know who I've practiced with years ago, who for various reasons stopped practicing for 10, 15 years. Of course, they really practiced for quite a while, 5, 6, 8 years before. But during the 10 or 15 years while they didn't practice, their practice not only continued in some way underneath, but it matured. It didn't mature as thoroughly as if they'd stayed practicing. But it might be deeper if less thorough. But again, they only realized the fruit of that

[56:15]

secret practice if they start practicing again. Okay. That's enough for now? Maybe I should say something? It's a problem how to practice in daily life. And that's why we have a place like this. One of the reasons. This is easier. This is easier.

[57:47]

For me, it's no longer easier to practice here, but it's more satisfying. That's why I stay here at Creston. It's not easier for me to practice when I'm here or in Creston, but it's... But for many years it definitely was easier to practice with others, so that's why I tried to create situations that supported my practice. We could say that all of you are a measure of how bad my practice is. Because look at all the help I need. There's some truth to that. Very good. Anyway, it's well known that

[59:01]

that lay practice, adept lay practice, is more difficult than monastic lay practice. But it's not impossible. For sure it's not impossible. And the vision of Mahayan practice is a lay practice. And if each of you find out how to do it for yourself, you're also creating a Buddha field. And if you know that, it's easier to do it for yourself. Because then you're doing it for others, your family and friends. Okay. Now, let's go back to this idea of original body.

[60:08]

Now, original body is a idea like the gold standard. What's the gold standard? You know currency is based on so much gold in Fort Knox or some place. You know when you spend money you don't spend gold but you know that if you had to there's some gold back there somewhere. Of course, it's not the case anymore. It's probably the equivalent is now controlling the money supply in relationship to activity.

[61:13]

So there's a balance between money supply and activity for the money to continue its value. But the idea of something like original body or original mind or something like that is that somewhere at the root of your activity is this gold or this. Even if you don't experience it, you know somehow it's there. Now I'm not trying to just make your life better. That would be okay, but my emphasis is to try to bring real practice into our lives, whatever our lives are.

[62:31]

Okay, so again, the importance of something like original body, the phrase I'm using in this seminar, is not that it's such a great experience or an experience you can reproduce anytime you want. But once you've had this kind of experience or You've recognized it or tasted it, recognized its possibility or tasted it. It's a kind of knowledge that's always present. And once you've been free, freed yourself from the from the thought shield, even for a moment, the thought shield is forever loosened.

[63:38]

Now, okay, so let's take that. If the thought shield is forever loosened, you now have to move immediately into the breach. Breach means the opening. So some understanding like that helps you understand what are the daily practices what are the daily practices. Now, one thing characteristic of Zen Buddhism, in contrast to most other Buddhism,

[64:38]

This is no guided meditation. Or very little guided meditation. For instance, there's no metta practice, M-E-T-T-A. Why? Well, one reason is we don't want to tell you where you're going. We don't want to interfere with the brilliance or possibility or... quality of your zazen practice. This is a very open idea of what society is. So Zen has the idea that each of us and Buddhism itself is evolving. Consciousness and realization is evolving.

[66:01]

We're not just trying to imitate the Buddha's experience. We're trying to imitate the mind which the Buddha had when he discovered Buddhism. Okay, so if there's no guided meditation, it means the teachings are applied in your everyday life, not in tzazen. So the teachings are applied in your everyday life as a kind of way of opening up situations to let zazen mind in. Again, Dogen said, the coming and going of birth and death is where most people drift about. Also where sages are liberated.

[67:05]

So how do you, in your ordinary situations, open up the situation So practice comes in. Now, some of you, I think, have a rather passive idea. Well, I'll go to Johanneshof and practice is easier. And I have some good understanding. And some of you do have quite good understanding. And I'll bring that understanding into my daily life. But not much happens. You feel good. Just as Suzuki Roshi said, it's experience, not philosophy.

[68:16]

Your understanding is not going to help much, actually. Your understanding only helps if you enter experience. In one of the six paramitas, One of the six parameters is discipline. Discipline means just that you do it. That you hold the intention to do it. You find ways to do it. Okay, so I would say that as a lay practitioner, and we're all lay practitioners, you have to start out with some attitudes.

[69:23]

But one attitude is, never sacrifice your state of mind. Now you may sometimes But you need the view, the intention to not sacrifice your state of mind. If you're willing to sacrifice your state of mind, you really do. Hold the string at one end and all the beads go. This is a profound... It will affect how you work. How you're with your family. How you drive in traffic. Yeah. Okay, don't sacrifice your state of mind.

[70:46]

Okay, second, you need faith that the practice will work. You need to be convinced, have some knowledge. that this practice is possible, and possible for a lay person. If you don't have that faith, it won't work. I'm sorry. It's just the way it is. Now, you mentioned how you act through things and so forth. And while what we do when we practice meditation is attempt to create a space where we can freely allow, neither repress nor express, but freely allow emotions, feelings, etc.,

[71:56]

What we do while meditating is that we create a space where we allow feelings and thoughts and the like to come free. We neither suppress nor support it. And we even amplify it to try to reach the depth of our emotions. But you're right, this is not the same as taking action. And I think it's taught in Hinduism, for instance, that all acts are sacred. And to act, if you take action, things happen that you never planned for. Okay. Now, what you expressed is one of the prevalent views in our Western society based on a psychological understanding of how we function.

[73:24]

What you described is one of the prevailing thoughts from a psychological point of view. And what is the second part? It's a psychological view of how we function. And we all have this kind of view now. And if this view is stronger than your Buddhist views, this is how you should do it. And I think it's important to see psychology and psychological approaches. I don't mean necessarily working with a therapist, but a psychological way of thinking is different from Buddhism. And it's a perfectly good way, useful way, to work through one's... as a way to know oneself.

[74:24]

Now, if you know quite a bit about psychology, you can begin to use Buddhism in psychotherapeutic ways. But to use Buddhism in psychotherapeutic ways, you have to really have an understanding at least equivalent in strength and clarity as to the understanding that's in society about psychological approaches. So if one uses practice, practice is a powerful tool. And if someone uses it to suppress emotions, then they're... misusing practice.

[75:39]

But that doesn't mean and we shouldn't assume that practice can be used to solve all psychological and other problems. You should, whatever your knowledge is and approach to things, use them all. And within that, strengthen your use of Buddhism. So, again, let me come back. I think there's three... Well, we won't play any music tonight. There are three... attitudes that I would emphasize today. Yeah, one is this not sacrifice your state of mind.

[76:41]

Second, Nurture the feeling. See if you really do feel that you have faith in this practice. And if you see you don't, then don't expect it to work powerfully. If you're just trying it out, It'll only work at that level. I'm sorry that way, but I'm not trying to make you all into Buddhists. I'm just trying to tell you how it works. Okay. Now the third attitude is what I would call patience.

[77:43]

By patience I mean, yes, patience in the common sense, common sense of the word, usual sense of the word. To let things work unnoticed. But patience, I also mean here more specifically to wait for things. To wait for things to speak to you. To wait for this to tell me what it is. To have the patience to see past our first impressions. Only if you have this kind of patience do you open that little space where zazen mind can come in.

[78:53]

So I would say those three attitudes are... I would say are a good basis for bringing practice into your daily life. Good, and at least these three are essential. Next is, and I've mentioned this kind of thing before, you have to create certain kind of cues. Not standing in line, cues, things that make you think of something. That's the word for cue. C-U-E. So, one cue is your breath. Just notice your breathing and then you bring your attention to your breathing.

[80:11]

Yeah, another cue is stairs. I say, pretend any stairway is the stairway in the monastery. Yeah. So it gives you a chance in your office or something when you're walking upstairs, just pay attention to your breathing or just have that as a kind of little contemplative time. Don't go up three steps at a time unless you're exercising. Just go with a nice pace and nourishing pace. Another is your elbow. You can make these up yourself.

[81:20]

This is something I made up. Every time I put my elbow in something, I let it remind me to let kind of awareness flow through my whole body. So if I'm real busy, I keep my arms in the air so I don't have to be reminded. It's pretty hard eventually to put your elbow down. So you have to play with yourself in this way, figure out little ways to get yourself to. And then the other that I use is the sky. Whenever I look at the sky, I identify my mind with the sky. And the sky with my mind. And so, you know, I take an opportunity to get up and look out the window or do something like that.

[82:35]

So in this kind of seamless world in front of us, you kind of find a little and you pull it open and the sky pops out. Okay. If you establish some basic attitudes, like I've suggested, Then you establish some cues that remind you to practice. Then the next step is to bring some practices into your daily life. And the most basic are the four foundations of mindfulness, satipatthana.

[83:39]

So you're mindful of the body, of phenomena as mental objects, of feelings, emotions, and of the mind. And mindfulness of the body includes mindfulness of the breath. Now, I can give you a number of practices of this kind that you apply in your activity. But if you decide to do this, I would take one set of practices at a time. And then you have to intend to do it. Now, most of us, you know, you can think this is a good idea.

[84:53]

But most of us only intend what we get paid for. You know, and then some other silly things. Because your job, you're going to get fired and so forth, and you're working here, you've got big responsibility, and you get up early, and you do these things, and then you think, oh, well, why didn't I practice? But, of course, it's not really just because you're getting paid. It's because the identity most crucial to you is tied up in the support you get from work and so forth. So you let practice slide. It can be done some other time. This means you're sacrificing your state of mind.

[86:10]

This means you don't really value this state. identity that's free of all these social constructs. It hasn't hit you yet, really, deeply. Maybe it's there in your understanding, but it's not sufficiently there in your experience to have as high a priority as your other compulsions. Okay, so the practices of mindfulness are to notice that. Like noticing that there is some delusion.

[87:12]

What is not the illusion? Do you think the word has meaning? Different meanings. If we have the word and it has meaning, then there's delusion.

[88:20]

And it means there's something which is not delusion or less delusion. I'm looking at you and it's an illusion but not a delusion. So the practice of mindfulness is to begin to see, for instance, delusion is when you think things are permanent. To see that things are impermanent is not delusion. And if you build a world on the subtle idea of permanence, you will have much more difficulty in your life making good decisions and you'll be physically less healthy and so forth.

[89:35]

Most of us have gross delusions. And they're fairly easy to correct. But subtle delusions are harder to correct. Let me give you an example. As I said the other day, it's very easy To bring your attention to your breath. To move your sense of location to your breath. And... But very quickly it snaps back to your thinking. And why does it do that?

[90:40]

Because you have a subtle belief in the permanence of the world presented by your thinking. If you really knew that the world presented by your thinking and senses is impermanent, it would be easier and easier to shift your sense of location and sense of identity to your body and your breath, away from your thinking. So the way in which we identify with our thinking as who we are is delusion. and evolves us in delusive ways of thinking and evolves us through delusion

[91:43]

into more complicated ways that we can't really see our way out of the life we've created. Okay, now the four foundations of mindfulness we could describe as ways to make yourself aware of delusion and to free yourself from delusion. And although they're often said in English, the four foundations, probably a more accurate translation is the four awakenings of mindfulness. Because these practices awaken mindfulness. non-thought-based awareness, which then becomes the foundation of mindfulness.

[93:14]

So, I'm running out of time. There are several teachings like this that I think are useful to bring into your daily practice. And I will mention some others tomorrow. And is tomorrow our last day? You make a good clown. Do I need a hat or anything? Can't you stay longer?

[94:14]

I'll be here. We're going to have a seminar this weekend. Oh, yeah, good. Okay. Now, do we have to end early in the afternoon tomorrow because you have to travel or anything? Or can we end about the regular time? Do you have to leave early? She has to leave at around two. She's here on bike. On your bicycle? Yes, but only to Bad Selkingen and then by train. Oh, I can give you a ride if you want. It's better downhill, though. It must have been quite a trip up here.

[95:19]

Yeah. I hope it wasn't raining. A little bit. Oh, tough. I have a question. Can you recommend some books which will help us to follow these thoughts when we are at home? Yeah, no, yes, I don't know. Just...

[96:03]

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