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Karma, Form, and Zen Freedom
AI Suggested Keywords:
Seminar_Form_and_Freedom
The talk examines the interrelation of karma, form, and freedom within Zen Buddhist practice, analyzing how these concepts influence perception and worldview. The discussion emphasizes the distinction between karma as intentional action and its consequences, and worldview as a conceptual framework that affects perception but is not formed by individual intention. The importance of releasing practices in transforming a 'karma-sticky mind' is highlighted, illustrating how these methods can lead toward a state of non-dualistic consciousness. This transformation is contrasted with historical Western educational concepts like Bildung, presenting an intersection of philosophical and cultural teachings in forming identity and practice.
Referenced Works and Concepts:
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Karma: Originally developed in the Upanishads, later adapted in Buddhism to focus on intentional action and its consequences. Discussion points out its Western interpretation often diverges from the Buddhist practice-centered meaning.
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Buddha's Teachings: Emphasized the practice of karma rooted in impermanence and the non-existence of a permanent self, aiming to transform how people perceive and react to the world.
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Dogen's Zazen Practice: A simple, practice-focused interpretation within Zen Buddhism, stemming from Dogen's adaptation to societal needs of simplicity in 13th-century Japan.
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Bildung: A German cultural concept evolving from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, reflecting shifts from divine grace to humanistic self-cultivation and education, influencing contemporary interpretations of form and individual uniqueness.
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Nietzsche and Herder: Represent thinkers who view truth as historical, challenging Kant's notion of universal truth and emphasizing a localized, historical understanding of human development.
These references provide insights into how specific cultural and philosophical developments influence individual and collective practices, especially the cultivation of mindfulness and awareness as they pertain to Zen mystical practices.
AI Suggested Title: Karma, Form, and Zen Freedom
It's a resource. They don't know much about a subtle practice like giving form and releasing. But they But meditation and the way of thinking about themselves is a resource, particularly in a crisis. And then there's a smaller number of people who are actually seriously practicing as an avocation The way you do is your life, yeah. Have a call on you. And that's us or some of us.
[01:04]
And those people hopefully will continue a lineage. Und diese Leute hoffentlich werden eine Linie fortsetzen. Und hoffentlich eine Weise finden, wie diese Lehren für uns Westler funktionieren. Also ich habe gesagt, es gibt drei Gründe und einen vierten. And the fourth is these fewer adepts or serious practitioners, when functioning as a sangha, can really bring this worldview as practice into a culture.
[02:09]
An individual won't do it. The power of a sangha will do it. And that's why last night's meeting and our being together, practicing here, is so important, I think. Janis is giving directions. Yeah, okay. I won't try to say more about how I think that works right now. So let's just take this practice of releasing and of giving form and releasing. And let's try to talk about these definitions, samsara, karma and so forth.
[03:38]
Sometimes, I mean years ago, I used to say as a kind of formula, form as karma leads to samsara. Form as dharma leads to nirvana. So there's form, and it can be dharmic or it can be karmic. No, it doesn't. I mean, the word karma has, I don't know, it's gathered meanings. As I think you know, it's the word only dates from a little bit before the time of Buddha. So it's an idea that developed in the Upanishads. It wasn't in the Vedas. And was a something thought about, about the time, actively thought about, about the time of the Buddha's own life.
[05:05]
The Buddha tried to take the general ideas floating around, gathering around the idea of karma, and concentrate them into an idea with which you could practice, and rooted in impermanence and no permanent self. And then karma gets released as a word back into Western countries. And it begins to accumulate all kinds of meetings. It means everything, you know, something. And it's used by psychologists and philosophers and so forth.
[06:23]
But most of that has very little to do with the Buddhist meaning of karma rooted in practice. It's easy for me to say that the idea of love is different than the idea of compassion. Because one is a Western word and compassion is now a more Buddhist-rooted word. But now that karma is a western word a kind of new western word people think it's Asian. So it gets harder for me to distinguish karma, European karma or Western karma idea from actual Buddhist karma.
[07:40]
And I don't know how to do it myself. I'm trying to figure it out with you. First we can look at a couple of things. One is that at the moment of death your state of mind can change a lifetime of karma. Okay, so what kind of accumulated effects can be changed in an instant? Not all accumulated effects can be changed in an instant. So karma has to be those accumulated effects that can be changed in an instant. Okay, so let's try to have some examples.
[09:04]
A few years ago, I don't know, ten years ago or so, in Aspen, Colorado, two boys up on the mountain started playing around with their father's guns, one of their father's guns. And they were shooting some bullets into the air. And the bullets went all the way down into the Aspen music tent and killed two old women who were listening to a concert. The father came home and they packed up and left their vacation home and drove to Wisconsin. There's no karma for those boys.
[10:20]
Okay. Yes. You want there to be karma? Justice. It has nothing to do with it. If they intentionally shot, hoping maybe they'd hit something, then there's karma. But I didn't tell the story the right way. In fact, the father didn't drive off. Immediately it was national news these two women were killed. And they figured out the trajectory of the bullets. And they arrested these two kids.
[11:30]
But there's still no karma for killing the kids, for killing the two women. Yeah, I mean, if they just shot the gun and knocked something over, the karma is what their consciousness reacts to. What their consciousness reacts to. So they have a lot of karma. The newspaper people, their father being upset, thinking about these two women who died. That's all their karma. So karma is created in consciousness and has an element of intentionality to it. You want to say something? I thought about it.
[12:53]
This part with the children I understood, but I think about the father. The father has kind of responsibility of how he keeps the weapon. So what is his karma concerning that? Well, he has karma and a certain legal responsibility too. for how he kept the guns. It's just like you have a swimming pool and a kid drowns in it and you don't have a fence around it. You have a karma. You have some karma for that. But it's clearly a different karma if it's an accident than if you drowned some kid intentionally. Okay, so that's just, I'm just trying to give you an example of this isn't about retribution. Karma has nothing to do with retribution. Yeah. It's not about making the world all just.
[14:11]
In any case, the world isn't understood as a unit. There's all separate little parts. And those parts may work together and may not work together. There's no universal language. Just listen to German and English. It's not quite the same. And there's no language underneath German and English which expresses everything equally. Und es gibt keine Sprache, die unterhalb Deutsch und Englisch liegen würde, die alles auf irgendwie gleiche Art und Weise ausdrücken könnte. Unterschiedlich ist einfach unterschiedlich. I mean, for some people it's difficult to accept that we live in a world of all kinds of separate things sort of coming together and sort of coming apart.
[15:14]
We feel only right in our hearts if there's oneness and retribution. And justice. But there isn't. In my opinion, there isn't. There's compassion. Compassion is, I think, deeper than justice. Somehow justice should be deeper than... I mean, compassion should be deeper than bringing everyone to justice. So here we're engaged in what I'm talking about is a world view. And the worldview is not karma.
[16:22]
It influences how you accumulate karma. But it's not karma. So we have to have one kind of practice for your worldviews and another kind of practice for your karma. So karmic practice for your karma is in the present moment. Now, to readjust your karma through understanding it, that may make it easier for you to become free of it or less encumbered by it. But it's not really what we mean by practicing with your karma. Okay. To practice with your karma is done in the present. Okay. to practice with your views, you have to get behind how you perceive and conceive.
[17:46]
Okay, so I give you the common example I give you. If I think that space separates, if I have that view, That's prior to perception. And our perceptions will reinforce that. And then our conceptual processes based on the perceptual perceptions will further reinforce that. And we'll think it's a fact that space separates. When in fact it's part of a world view. If you have a worldview that space connects or space both separates and connects, Zen has practices to get that new view in behind perception and conception.
[19:02]
And then your perceptions begin to reinforce the view that space connects. In fact, we're already connected, not already separated. And it's more fundamental that we're already connected than that we're already separated. Okay. So that's a view, not karma. That you inherit from your culture. It has nothing to do with intention. You reinforce it all the time, but it's not really created by you through your consciousness.
[20:17]
Now, if you want to nitpick about it, nitpick means make little distinctions, you know. Haarspalten. Haarspalten. Haarspalten. You can say karma is this, karma... But that's philosophy or theory. Yeah, you have to come back. We have to find the meaning of these things and how we practice with it. So, giving form to and releasing... is a practice to deal with your karma. It's not a practice to deal with your views. Although the practice of giving form and releasing is based on a different kind of worldview.
[21:20]
So it may in effect undermine your world view. But that's a subsidiary reason for developing that practice. It's a subsidiary reason for developing this particular way of practice. So any practice should have lots of roots. And how the nature of practice is to be simple.
[22:39]
Particularly at the time of Dogen, for example. The country, Japan needed simple practices. The highly refined Heian aristocracy was in serious degeneration. And there was a whole emerging there was an emerging demography, a whole lot of people coming into the cultural identity. So the trend was to make simple practices.
[23:43]
They generally lumped under the term one practice samadhis. And so Dogen emphasized just Zazen. And Shinran and others emphasized Nichiren, just chanting. You can do that and sasen if you want. Okay. But there's an overall, but it's still more basically the fact that the world view has got to be brought into something you can practice repeatedly.
[24:50]
So, the sophistication of Buddhist practice is to develop ways in which a very complex view of the world can be brought down into simple practices. Without simplifying the teaching. In fact, this ends up in sophisticated Zen or refined or developed Zen. It ends up in a lot of simple practices. Simple practices with rather different targets.
[26:02]
Okay, so let me give you one... I have two daughters. One is 37. She's really nice. And when she was very tiny, We took her to the beach. Her name is Sally. And it's the first time we've taken her to the beach. At least in this way. And she wouldn't go in the water. I know she likes going in the water. She wouldn't go in the water. So I said, Sally, let's go in. No. She was barely able to walk. So I said, suddenly dawned on me.
[27:04]
I said, this is a bathing suit. It's okay to get your pants wet. Oh, okay, so she... So you could say that she'd learned consciously that you don't wet your pants. But a single word could change that. Because the attitude was created in consciousness and it can be freed in consciousness. That's a simple image of karma. It was created in consciousness and it can be ended in consciousness. Okay. Not quite. Let me refine it. It was created in dualistic consciousness.
[28:10]
And it's reified and reinforced and etc. In repeated contact with dualistic consciousness. It begins to lose its hold on you in non-dualistic consciousness. So one of the reasons non-dualism is emphasized as a practice It's not because it's the deepest sense of mind, but it's a way to understand and experience your mind in a way that frees you from karma. Okay.
[29:17]
Is that crystal clear? Of course it is. Why is it important for the moment of death? Death is dead, isn't it? That's only if you believe in reincarnation. And some of these theories are developed in assuming that maybe there's rebirth or reincarnation. Plus it's nicer to die in a good state of mind. I've seen this, so I know it first, not exactly first hand, but second hand. Okay, there's an interesting German word, Bildung.
[30:19]
And the little I understand about it is that during the Middle Ages, it was a word used by Christian mystics to mean an opening to grace, an aperture to grace. And then there's a second word, for build. Is that right? Which meant that when you were open to grace, Das bedeutet, wenn man also zu dieser Gnade geöffnet ist, the model, the way you modeled yourself, dass das Modell oder das, wonach man sich moduliert, the only model for this opening, also das einzige Modell oder Form für diese Öffnung, was Jesus.
[31:44]
Okay. Now, again, my understanding is that in the 1700s and the 18th century, The word changed. And Humboldt and Herder and others changed fundamentally the way this word is understood in German. And I think this is interesting also because it's a movement toward philosophy as history. And as Nietzsche had this idea. And I think Kant still had the idea of a universal truth. But Spinoza and Herder and others had the idea of truth is local, it's historical.
[32:50]
There's no universal language. Okay. So, again, the idea came to mean, I guess generally, education. But education doesn't make any sense unless you know what kind of human being you're educating. But education doesn't make any sense unless you know what kind of human being you're educating. Just as Buddhist education, practice, teaching, has no sense unless you imagine what kind of human being it's applied to.
[34:00]
So, Bildung began, I think, through these folks I've mentioned, came to be understood as education applied to a person who was unique. Original and particular. and each person had particular dispositions unique to them, which should be developed. So building means, I think, was it form and how you represent the form?
[35:24]
Yeah, an image. An image, yeah. Now you picture it. Okay, so I chose to speak about this because of our title, Form and Freedom. And to respond to what is form, you know, etc. So here's form and how you let the form be represented or picture you. So this is different from the French idea of the individual is equal to other individuals. It's different to say the individual is unique in relationship to others.
[36:29]
It creates a different kind of education. And it creates a different kind of national identity. And so they began to emphasize it was almost like a biological or botanical idea of a plant. The plant has innate tendencies or capacities. But they're developed in their milieu, in their garden, how they're planted. So the milieu became very important. In fact, the milieu finally became so important that the earlier idea of divine intervention disappeared.
[37:54]
We developed ourselves through our own efforts Adapting to the milieu. And the idea that there could be divine intervention pretty much disappeared from Western thinking and German thinking. Okay. So basically around the idea of Bildung... The whole way in which creation was imagined got rearranged. Okay, that's a view, that's not karma.
[38:55]
Probably most of you have inherited some sort of view like this because it's built into the educational system. And it may be why Buddhism, I think, takes hold more strongly in Germany than France. Because you guys respond right away when I say each thing is particular. And momentary and unique. And we're giving form to it. These ideas are very closely overlapping. So the idea of Bildung may allow you to build on Buddhist teachings.
[40:08]
In a way, so if I taught in France, I have to kind of find a different way of speaking. And in fact, when I have, I have had to find a different way of bringing forth something and feeling it understood. So if you were going to practice here as a person educated in Germany, if you're going to work with your views in contrast to your karma, then we would, and if I'm going to teach here, I have to see how I can give you teachings
[41:10]
which are supported by the conception of the human being as in your already present educational process. And I also have to give you teachings which are antidotes to the way Bildung leads you in another direction than Buddhism. Okay, so I call Bildung Samsara, not Karma. It's one of the forms in which we inherit from our culture. And the way we work with that is different than how we work with our karma. Okay. And I thought it was interesting also to use something...
[42:26]
to show you that the idea of form is quite subtle. Okay, so we're going to have lunch at one o'clock, is that right? Now, can you leg-stand it if I go on a little bit longer? But more important, can your mind stand it? Are your brains pouring out your ears yet? That's what happens to me. Sometimes my brain starts dribbling out my ears because I hear too much. Okay. Brain dust, you know what's going on. Brain or rain? Brain dust. Okay. So I'd like to talk about the practice of releasing. We have to be practical about this.
[43:54]
As I started out, you guys, what we are is what we notice. What we are is what we bring our attention to. Okay. So, through zazen practice and mindfulness practice, it is suggested that you bring your attention to what appears. This is almost meaningless advice to somebody who doesn't do zazen or practice mindfulness. Because the whole strategy of ordinary consciousness is to give us a complete seamless picture of the world. So we have to break up that picture into parts.
[44:57]
And we can only do that through mindfulness and meditation practice. Okay, so let me try to create some practical examples. In the Zendo this morning. The radiators, the heating system makes quite a little noise and the pipes go quank, quank. When that appears, it already appears very quickly. And affects your mind. At least my mind. And I can notice that I've given form to it.
[45:57]
But it happens at the instant of perceiving. So I don't have much sensation of giving form to it. But I know my senses have just done that. So I can bring, but I can say, releasing. So every time I hear the radiator noise, I have a program to say, releasing. What kind of mantra? Okay, so I can do that a lot. I can get in the habit of looking at Nico and saying, releasing. Or Beate saying, release.
[46:58]
Or Uschi, and I look, and I can say, release it. Every time you do it as a habit, you're actually slightly changing the mind. So you're first doing it as a teaching, not necessarily to relieve yourself of any particular karma. And this ability to affect your karma takes some time as it's a kind of process of changing immediate consciousness. Now this is a fairly sophisticated version of Zen practice I'm giving you.
[48:00]
But, you know, you're smart folks, so why not? And I'm impressed by how good your practice is. So why not? You can do it. It's simple. You might have to find the right German word, but in English, releasing works quite well. Okay, so let's take another example. Let's take it while you're sitting, because then you can observe things more clearly. So I said, disturbing images, where are you? Come on up. So some came up. As soon as they come up, as an image or a thought or a feeling, they start accumulating all kinds of stuff.
[49:17]
There's something I've been experimenting with recently that for some reason can make me quite angry. And quite, not just angry, kind of feeling like the world's wrong and I've been treated unjustly and so forth. And I've tried so hard. So I can bring this up and as sure as I bring up the image, I start feeling... And then I examine it, I go back to the image, I make it stronger. And I can feel it affecting my muscles, this kind of strange liquids begin to, octopus ink begins to poison me. But if I take the image out and put it aside...
[50:34]
goes away almost immediately. Now when I was younger in practice, I couldn't so easily just take the image out. Now it's quite easy to do. Let me just take it away. There's nothing that keeps it there. But this is only just a fruit of practice. Because that's an interesting question for me, too, how. And when I practiced with it during the Zen, once I tried just with the word, stop.
[51:53]
As soon as the Thatcher image, emotion came up, stop, [...] I did a whole machine on stopping. Did you get stopped up? Yeah, it wasn't so good working, actually, because a lot of stopped, confusing stuff came up. And another session, I had this image like a computer screen, and this is drag and drop, Put it in the... Oh, you drag it and put it in the trash. And that's nearly worked actually quite well. Because you know you can unerase it. Because you know you can un-erase it. So it really amused me that these little tricks actually had different results. Yeah. Deutsch, bitte. For me, the question was also, how can I do this ship and let it go?
[53:10]
I tried to say the word stop as soon as I got the thought to say stop. That led to meaningless words, so to speak, remaining. That didn't really work. And another image that helped me was a computer screen where I actually catch it and then put it in the paper and paste it. And that worked perfectly for me. And that amazed me, how such a small difference with the trick actually makes a big difference Okay, Neil? In our group we talked about that some not-so-preferable states may have something like an addictive quality to them.
[54:16]
What you said, there's nothing that keeps it there. But it seems like you seem to be sort of, even if it's not becoming, you seem to be somewhat drawn into states appear which are not-so-becoming. It's just a matter of repetition or just old habits. What is the matter of old habits? Oh, if you just lived for decades in certain dualistic ways of thinking or emotional repetition like this quarrels, and so we found it difficult to get out of it. It's old habits, that's karma. Yeah. And if it, I'll just, you remember if you can, if it serves our personality, then we bring it back up. And mostly these things come back up because it serves us in some way.
[55:18]
Serves us negatively or positively, but it serves us. We want it to happen. Yes. But he should say his in German first. Okay. In our group we talked about the fact that some unbearable, mostly emotional conditions can have a soft character. That even though you know that something is wrong with you, you somehow get back in, you pick it up, you plunge back in. Okay. Then you should say what he... He translated it. Renato wants to know what does personality mean? What is service personality? Oh, by personality I mean the way you've constructed your identity.
[56:20]
Say you've constructed your identity so you usually are overconfident. To compensate for also feeling inferior. Then you're going to remember and bring up images that reinforce those two views. dann wirst du dich immer an Bilder erinnern und die ergreifen, die diese beiden Sichtweisen von dir selber verstärken. Because you like feeling confident, but you only feel confident when you feel inferior, so you bring up things that make you feel inferior, and then you feel confident. Man möchte gerne selbstbewusst sein, aber das klappt ja bloß, wenn man sich als minderwertig fühlt.
[57:24]
Also saugt man immer Dinge an, wo man sich minderwertig fühlt. Okay, so then I brought up neutral images. Like last time I saw my 94-year-old mother. In the image she saw her. I just brought up the last time I saw her as an image. And it's all right. It was just nice to see her. It's nothing special. But it immediately brought up all kinds of things. Little fishes began swimming toward it. I should write her or call her more often. All kinds of things began swinging around it.
[58:24]
So I took it away. And then I tried to think of a good one. The first time I saw, felt spring at a particular point in my life. Again, the same thing, a whole lot of fishes start swimming toward it. So it didn't make any difference whether it was good karma, neutral karma, or bad karma. It attracted these things. Now there's no question that when I see that, let's take the one that made me, makes me kind of feel incensed, means strong anger. Since I know I've created the image in myself, it's quite easy to let go of it.
[59:41]
Even if I don't create the image myself, but something reminds me of it and it comes forward. I mean, this actually has to do with a particular scroll, kakimono. So I can go in the zendo and see a kakimono there. It makes me think of this. But I see the link. I see the Kakimono that reminded me. So it's fairly easy for me to dissolve or release this image. Okay, but... Of course, there are many things that come up that are really stuck in us.
[60:56]
And you want to have a consciousness where they don't stick. You don't want to repress them. Yeah, and you don't actually want to act on them. And again, many of the practices of Zen are to create a big space in you which is neither repression nor expression. Not expression. So that's one kind of practice as I've often talked about. And this is a practice to change the kind of mind in which things appear. Can you all see this?
[62:12]
Can you all see it? Okay. Andreas, would you pull this camera off, please? He happens to be sitting where there used to be a wall which he pulled out. I think he can do anything. So let's say there's consciousness. And let's, for the sake of it, say there's something like awareness as another quality of knowing. Okay, so mostly you're... karmic stuff, occur in a kind of consciousness.
[63:27]
Even in zazen, it's a kind of consciousness when you're thinking about things. It's a different kind of consciousness. And I say it cooks your karma differently. But for the sake of this simple picture, let's call it a kind of consciousness. Okay, now this is also the case when you're with friends at work or people you work with or with your spouse. So this might be more defined consciousness, less defined consciousness.
[64:33]
And more defined consciousness is more future directed. More involved with planning, what you have to get done, etc. Or more self-defined. Because you just feel offended by one of the people you work with or by your spouse. So you can say that your consciousness gets more selfie. And more defined. And it accumulates karma differently. Things that didn't bother you before bother you more.
[65:44]
Now five things irritate you, not just one. Something like that. Is that a familiar experience? Okay, so... But it happens. And the kind of consciousness you have is giving form to. We often call that a mood. Yeah, I hope my mood's better now. Or your friend says, I hope you will Or your friends say, I hope your mood will be better soon Okay, so You now have a practice of releasing.
[66:46]
Now you're all going to have this practice of releasing. Anything that comes up, you release it. And I'm speaking now. I say my words and I release my words. And I have a kind of blank mind in between my words. And I'm breathing and I'm releasing my breathing. I'm looking at my favorite kind of rose, these red and white or red and yellow ones. And I look at them and I release them. And I look at her and let her go. I particularly like the space between flowers. And I don't just look at the flower, I look at the space in and around the petals and between the leaves.
[67:51]
And I feel that space in myself. And I release that space. And so like that, whatever it is, I let it come in and I release it. So I just get in the habit of just gathering in and releasing. And in many ways, this takes many forms with the fundamental practice of Zen. The way we're expressing it now is a gathering in and a releasing. Or giving form to and releasing. Okay, so something appears in your consciousness. Yeah, like a fish jumping out of the water maybe.
[69:08]
Now, where it come from? We can say it came out of awareness or it came out of the skandhas. Some perception, some association, some feeling. Memory. It appears in consciousness. As it appears, you notice it and release it. So something like this is happening every time you do it. Every time you do it, this line gets less strong. And you begin to have more and more of this awareness surfacing in your consciousness.
[70:10]
Because as you develop the habit of releasing, You're working with your world view, of course. Knocking at its door. But you're also working with how your present mind is constituted. The present mind which either reinforces the present mind which usually reinforces your karma. And your karma gets stuck in the over-articulated
[71:11]
comparative consciousness. Where self and ego reign supreme. Buddha's down here, so I'm saying, come on, it's okay. He or she's very relaxed. Who's down there? Buddha. And the Buddha sits down there, he or she, and says, come back here. And he goes up here and says, we're the boss. So you let just as these things surface, you say, release. And what you actually do is you create another kind of little mind that we could call mind turning toward
[72:28]
So every time you release, you're turning toward emptiness away from form. So you have some ongoing continuity of consciousness. And you have some ongoing sense of awareness through mindfulness practice and so forth you've developed. A kind of background mind. Okay, now you keep creating a little bubble mind. over and over again, the mind turning to an emptiness. It only exists for a moment. Every object of karma gives you, whether it's good or bad karma, gives you a chance to generate mind turning to an emptiness.
[73:59]
And that momentary mind which doesn't have continuity but it keeps reappearing it starts changing consciousness and awareness. So instead of working with your karma units directly, you're working with the mind in which karma gets stuck. And as you start changing the mind that reifies karma, And it makes it all sticky and attractive and bluey. So many associations stick to it. Then you can't do much about it.
[75:31]
You're stuck in another thing. I'm still angry for three days. This is not so much the problem of the karma. It's the problem of the mind in which the karma is stuck. So the way Buddhism is a mindology, it says change the mind in which karma gets stuck. So this little practice of noticing that you give form to and releasing begin changing karma sticky mind Das fängt an, diesen karma-klebrigen Geist zu ändern.
[76:36]
Or we can even say karma-producing mind. Oder wir können das sogar den karma-schaffenden Geist nennen. Because you have your karma, the accumulation of the effects of your actions. Denn ihr habt ja euer Karma, die Anhäufung von den Wirkungen eurer Taten. But that doesn't have much effect on you unless you have a karma-sticky mind. Or a karma reproducing mind. Because karma is conditional. Which means it's constantly reproduced. And dualistic consciousness constantly reinforces your karma. So to notice that you give form to everything is to notice impermanence and to release what you give form to
[77:40]
generates a mind turning toward emptiness and begins to change your karma sticky mind. And then it becomes much more easier to take some karma unit, good or bad, out and just put it on the shelf. If it's not serving your ego and identity anymore, it's no problem. So karma is necessary in order to generate a karma-free mind. So you can still have your good karma and enjoy it.
[79:03]
But good karma is best enjoyed in a karma-free mind. So that's enough talking for today. And... Some of you think you can get through a whole seminar without speaking. And you may have succeeded. But I've noticed... So you already have accumulated some karma. And the next time you appear at a seminar, whether you like it or not, you're going to get called on. What does that beautiful, shy, taciturn person have to say? So let's sit for a moment.
[80:07]
I didn't answer all the questions, but you have to leave. I didn't answer all the questions, but I have to go. Yes? You missed something wonderful last night. One plate was bloomed, and he's very hot on it. Can I have it again? Shakuhachi. Oh. Well, but you have to... That may mean I can't see you. Yeah, because some of you have to leave at quarter to two. And we have to eat. Two o'clock with your trains at 2.30, though, that's tight. Yeah. Yeah, okay, well, then we... So please, yeah.
[81:20]
Okay. Thank you.
[83:18]
Thank you. ¶¶
[85:44]
Eh? um um Okay, thank you for translating.
[87:38]
Thank you all for being here. Hope I see you again very soon.
[87:45]
@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_74.53