You begin to enter the unknown territory, the yet to be revealed territory of your life. Yeah, so let me finish this little breathing instruction for Zazen. And then we can have a break. Okay, so you bring attention to your breath. Through counting your exits. And sometimes then you lose it and you go to thinking, you go to something else. Yeah. So there's attention to your exhales.

[01:13]

And then there's something else. And sometimes the something else is thinking, sometimes it's changing your posture or whatever. Or memories. But let's give form to this not concentrating on your breath. That's called a pause. Without a Coca-Cola. So, there's a pause, but you don't give any form to it. Beyond letting yourself feel the pause, So when you feel a pause coming, so this is a practice in which you have concentration and intermittent pauses.

[02:18]

But let's look beyond that instruction into it. You're bringing attention to your breath. And you know, particularly at your stage of practice, that you'll be drawn back to more satisfying dimensions of self. So just decide that every little bit you'll pause. So it's not the moment when you get pulled out you make the pause, but you make the pause voluntarily. Yes, you choose to pause on a regular basis, which interferes with your going back to thinking.

[03:24]

So now you have your attention. You've given form to the breath with attention. and now you're giving form also to the pause with attention and you pause and dissolve a little and then go back to giving attention to your breath and maybe after a while you just start following your breath And so what happens? You're now giving attention and form to a breath. That's also pretty momentary, pretty ephemeral. Each breath quickly dissolves.

[04:39]

And now you're giving attention to the pause. And now to following breath. And to the pause. And to following your breath. And the tension is giving form now to things that are very subtle or hardly existing. This is forming, flowing into forming. And now you can even begin to give attention to attention itself. Because the flowing of pause and breath and attention begins to coalesce. And begins to give

[05:39]

rise to another kind of mind. And now you begin to have a kind of spontaneously arising form. You've created actually something new. Some kind of mind that coalesces from attention, breath and pausing. And you can actually concentrate on that now instead of your breath. And you're now giving form to that. And it's constantly giving you back form. And it begins now to be, through being concentrated on itself, what actually happens, there's a kind of spontaneous arising.

[06:50]

And it makes an opening. And spontaneously a rising mind comes up. And it's one of the stages in practice, spontaneously a rising mind. And spontaneously a rising mind is the essence of what we mean when we feel it by natural. And spontaneously rising mind is the essence of what we mean when we say we want things to be natural. the spontaneous arising of form and then you walk from here to the door with a spontaneous arising in each moment And you're not self-conscious at all.

[08:00]

But if you are self-conscious, that very self-consciousness calls you in. The keeping away calls me in. You have to be sugar before you can dissolve. Oh, dissolver of sugar. Dissolve me. Do we have sugar for the coffee out there? Okay, so let's sit for a moment and then we can have a break.

[09:02]

So I did something very simple. Which is to look at the actuality of giving attention to our breath. Perhaps not the reality, but the actuality. I mean, maybe we could say factuality, not the reality. And you know, There's a poke down into these basic words, and there's often a lot of wisdom there. The roots of the word fact in Iranian, Persian, and Sanskrit mean something created from oneself.

[11:17]

Art means to put something or to place something. This is a fact when I put it there. And we lose the sense of that. It's a fact that Bell is there. But it's a fact because I put it there. There's always a doer. Then, as Wittgenstein points out, when you look at something, there's nothing in the scene that shows it's seen by a person. The eye is not present. But the eye is so present that there's nothing else almost.

[12:35]

Sometimes we forget the obvious. And we believe in reality and not actuality. So all I was doing was pointing out the actuality of actuality. Perhaps we could say the factuality of actuality. That doesn't work in general. I'm sorry. I've reached my limit. There, shucks. She always tells me the truth.

[13:38]

Oh, maybe I don't get it. But when you think in generalizations, the world gets real simple. And if you really have a habit of reality, of generalizations, pretty soon you feel on the surface of things. you feel kind of flat and unnourished. Because generalizations don't let you in. Actuality lets you in. But then when you look at the actuality of bringing your attention to your breath, Such a simple thing becomes immensely subtle.

[14:46]

And with that subtlety we begin to slip into the unknown regions of ourselves. On the one hand it's as simple as if I notice the dirt. I'm giving form to the dirt. And when I give form to the dirt, then I can clean it off. But when you give form and you pay attention to the giving of form, and the giving of form is an activity,

[15:59]

And everything's changing. There's a continuous receiving of form as well as giving of form. And then there's generated the mind that receives form. And then we can concentrate on that coalescence. then I don't think we can go much further than that. If you do that, you'll go further. Then form and your body and the world start teaching you. So I can bring you that far as Zazen instructions. But you have to get there in your zazen. Before you can get much farther. Or before I can say anything to you that would make sense.

[17:12]

Okay. So I'd like to Stop right there. To put it simply, what I've pointed out is that giving of form can be the reifying or reinforcing of form But the giving of form can also be the dissolving of form. The dissolving of form is freedom from form. Or freedom within form. So then we have the title of our seminar, Freedom Formed.

[18:14]

So when the giving of form reinforces form, that's karmic activity. When the giving of form dissolves form, that's dissolving. That's a dharmic activity. Buddhism is that simple. What's your choice? The reinforcing of form or the dissolving of form? So I'd like to have now some discussion with you Because it's such a topic to really put our hands in the stream of practice.

[19:36]

We all have to put our hands in. Yeah, and voices in. See if you can disturb the stream with your voice. Unless we all disturb the stream there's not much meaning to doing this together. And tonight we'd like to have a meeting in German and not in English and discussing practice. What's the difference between practicing together and practicing on our own? How can we develop practicing together?

[20:38]

Do we want to? If we want to, what's the best way to do it? What are ways to do it? Yeah, so I'm looking forward to the discussion this evening. something we should do as a sangha. But it's not required, only if you're interested in practice and thinking through how to practice together. You should come. If you really need a little break tonight, you need a Dharma talk. a pause from Dharma, so then just take a nice evening.

[21:46]

And the farm next door, for those of you who are more interested in partying and dharma-ing, is having a big party. Our local glassblower, who's a very nice guy, is getting married. And he sent me an invitation, gave me an invitation. And he said the invitation extends to everyone at the seminar. See, if you're tired of dharma and would rather dance, They put up a tent, but it's going to be pretty soggy, mud-soaked dancing.

[22:56]

But having been at previous parties they've given, you probably won't even stay here in the building. you probably won't be bothered by any fundamental hum in your ear. It would be impressive if we can hear each other. Okay. No, I don't know. Maybe I'll be at the party tonight. Or maybe I'll try to do both. Anyway, so please, anything you'd like to bring up? No, off is wrong. Sorry. Do you define zazen as a karmic zazen or a dharmic zazen?

[24:17]

You can, sure. German, please. What's the difference? Is there a difference between karmic and dharmic zazen? Yes. And they're both the same. I mean, recognizing karma is already a step forward. Recognizing the accumulation of your actions and the receiving of that accumulation in the present, It's the understanding of karma. Otherwise there's no reason to call it karma.

[25:22]

Karma means, when you call it karma, it means you've recognized that the accumulation of your actions affect you. Wenn ihr das erkennt und Karma nennt, dann habt ihr so wie anerkannt, dass die Resultate eurer Handlungen euch betreffen. Then you might be stupid and say, or really laid back. Also dann könnt ihr vielleicht dumm sein oder ziemlich so wie faul. And say, affect me, Karma, affect me. I am yours, karma. Yeah, but it depends on your karma whether you're going to say that or not. In any case, the word karma means you have recognized and decided to act on and within your karma.

[26:23]

Again? the word karma has no meaning unless it's a recognition of that your actions affect you. And in Buddhism, the word karma means that you recognize that your actions are conditional and intentional, and primarily created within consciousness, and that because karma is conditional, it's conditioned by the present moment, And then hence can be deconditioned or unconditioned in the present moment.

[27:30]

So the word karma means you have a choice about how your actions affect you. And that choice becomes actuality through practice. And so when you sit down in zazen, You sit down in the midst of your karma. But when you sit down in zazen, you're sitting down in a developing dharma body and a dharma mind within your karma. which already changes how your karma affects you. So we could say karmic zazen and dharmic zazen are different.

[28:35]

But they are simultaneous. And need each other. Just as the keeping away calls me in. Is that approaching what you meant? Okay. On the other level, I also mean the form of the posture upright. It's just the... So I give myself into his form, and so I'm... That's not karmic. It's something... How would you call that? I mean, it's... Deutsch, bitte. In your form, get aufrichtung, hineingehen. Maybe you're trying to name too much.

[29:50]

It's an activity. So when you're sitting zazen, Yeah, the very posture we can call rooted in Dharma. And it's the very posture, though, that makes your karma visible to you. Yeah. Someone else? Yes. Yes. Last weekend I made a seminar with Charlotte. Where? Oh, okay. Since then I'm more conscious about or understand better the question of letting it happen or doing it. The breathing, but also the posture.

[31:08]

How much do I take this posture or how much do I let it happen, this posture? This very fine, subtle perception of myself. What I really noticed is, I think I let it happen, but actually there's a level where I'm actually doing it. That's all the time, you know. And then from some moments it happens by itself, and then I interfere, and this kind of tension between the two. Good. She helps us notice that. She was my first teacher along with Suzuki Roshi. And she's now 99. And she's great. She's still teaching all in Europe and so forth. Yeah, when I... I saw her in Munich a few years ago.

[32:17]

I brought her to where she was staying. And it was those high-ceilinged apartment buildings in Munich. and she had to walk up five long stairs. And in the apartment where she stays It's a two-story apartment, and actually her bedroom is up another flight. So when we got to the bottom of the stairs, I said, Charlotte, I'm going to carry you. And I reached down to pick her up. She's quite light. She said, you are not, young man.

[33:22]

Okay, she said, and I prefer to walk by myself. Goodbye. That's right, I couldn't help her up at all. But she called me up a few months ago. She said, I have wonderful news for you. You got married. Yeah, and so it inspired me, and I decided to get married. And there's about the same age difference, she said. I'm 99, he's in his 60s.

[34:22]

So we congratulated each other. What else? You don't want to answer it? Answer what? This one. I thought it was good what he said. It's enough. Yes. Is it that I create form and form dissolves itself and this dissolved form And this dissolved form dissolves me. I don't understand. Okay, yes. Yeah. Deutsch, bitte. Okay.

[35:23]

Well, that's a good idea, anyway. But you don't want to get too dissolved. Too sweet. Okay. When you recognize that form is the act of forming. As soon as I recognize that the fact of this bell is my placing this... Or the fact of this bell is my ringing of the bell. The more thoroughly you recognize... Yeah.

[36:32]

Is that everything is created from yourself. I mean, things exist. But they exist through activity. And they exist for you through your activity. So recognizing that you give form doesn't dissolve form. Because the giving of form can reinforce form. But the recognizing that you can give form opens you to the wisdom that you can dissolve form. And how you dissolve form rather than reinforce form is the practice of dharma. And how you dissolve form instead of or resolve form instead of reinforce form, is the practice of Dharma.

[37:43]

So implicit in the recognition that you give form is freedom from form. But realizing that implicitness is practice. That's maybe a beginner's kind of question. Yeah, that's good. We speak about dharma all the time, and I'd like one definition of dharma, as you just gave a similar quality of definition you gave of karma, which really made me understand a lot of things.

[38:47]

Well, in a, let's say, philosophical sense, Dharma is simply to recognize that everything's impermanent. ist einfach das Erkennen, dass alles vergänglich ist. Yeah, that doesn't help much. Aber das hilft nicht sehr viel. We all think we recognize everything is impermanent. Wir glauben ja alle, dass wir das erkannt hätten, dass alles vergänglich sei. But in fact we act as if things were impermanent. We're permanent. In der Tat handeln wir so, als ob die Dinge permanent, also beständig seien. So the process... of recognizing everything is impermanent, is the recognition then that everything's changing. And then if everything's changing, it's the recognition that everything is momentary. Extremely momentary.

[40:07]

Okay, so you can recognize intellectually, shall we say, that everything is extremely momentary. We say a kshana is one 64th, I think, of a finger snap. Yeah, that's pretty short. But you just heard 64 of them. Except you can barely, in our consciousness, we can hear this. But our consciousness is not refined enough to be present to 64 of those. Okay, another definition of a kshana is when a healthy, vigorous person Scans across the sky, the fully... What's the word?

[41:40]

Empyrean. You don't know that word. Anyway, it means the sky is a celestial, fiery thing. Yeah, you... gazes across the fully starred sky. Kshana is the length it takes to see one of the stars. That sounds impossible. But that kind of definition means it's possible. Because when you look across a star, a starry sky in a clear night, you feel all the stars, and it's different than when there's only a few stars. So then we can say that there's some kind of awareness feeling that's more subtle than grasping consciousness.

[42:49]

Okay, so we had dharmas, to recognize everything's impermanent. And impermanence is to recognize that everything's changing. And recognizing everything's changing brings you into the momentariness of things. More momentary than things can be consciously grasped, But we do have a feeling or awareness of this momentariness. So then dharma means, how can we bring ourselves into this momentariness? And that's practice. And so we could also say that, okay, I have to approach this Dharma.

[44:22]

It may be so momentary, but how do I approach it? Okay, then practice. If you look at koans and things, you see many koans, many teachings are about how to approach this momentariness. And the power of being in the direction of approaching, but not necessarily arriving. Does that make sense? In the direction of being free from, rather than in the direction of being but entangled with. In other words, am I free? That's some kind of generalization.

[45:23]

Am I entangled? That's a generalization. I'm in an activity of becoming entangled. Or I'm in an activity of becoming unentangled. And the direction toward less entanglement is very different than the direction toward more entanglement. And a lot of the teachings about that difference. Yet still we want to approach it in consciousness. Because in a way we'd like to tame our consciousness a bit. So it's more joined to us. So that it is somehow more connected with us.

[46:32]

That it is more our friend. So rather than a bad boss, the master of bad conscience. So what I suggest to people is to come into a dharmic unit or a dharma moment consciously where you don't have a feeling of permanence is to notice each moment in consciousness, as it nourishes you. Consciousness notices bigger units than awareness. So you notice those units which nourish you. As I always say, just as you're walking, as we're talking and listening here, we try to come into it in a way that feels nourishing.

[48:01]

And each little moment, as it's nourishing, we could call it a kind of dharma. Or doing each thing completely. Walking to the door. How you stand up, how you move. Feeling complete in each little action. And we could say that's entering into experience things as Dharma. Rather than as karma receivers. We could have dharma shedding moments. You know how a duck sheds water? The bodhisattva gets up and sheds karma in all directions.

[49:04]

Hopefully none of it lands on anyone else. Okay, what else? Yes? I have a question. You spoke a lot about giving the soul a dissolving form. Which meaning have rituals, like rituals in the sense of bowing, praying? What importance or position has a ritual? Yeah. That's a good question. It is one I struggled with a lot in the beginning. But ritual is a way of communicating. And a way of establishing some kind of a way of doing things together.

[50:06]

Es ist eine Art, wie man ein etwas Zusammentun aufbauen kann. But in essence it's a giving form to. Aber in essence ist das ein etwas Form geben. Yeah, in a way of reminding yourself to give form to. Es ist ein sich erinnern, Dingen Form zu geben. Let me just give you an example. Also ich möchte euch einfach ein Beispiel geben. So when we come into the Zen, when I come up to my cushion, I bow to it. That's a ritual. I could come in just like this. That's okay. Bad boy, you know. That's okay, but it's a different feeling.

[51:24]

And there's not much sense of Dharma in it. I'm just kind of going from one place to another. I really got this once from Charlotte Selva. As I referred to her indirectly this morning, When I said coming to standing. Because I'd always lived in a world where people said stand up or sit down. So when I stood up, I went from this position and up to this position. But she said, come up to standing. And I suddenly found hundreds of little positions all the way up to standing.

[52:30]

And you come into a posture and not a position. A posture, a position is something you're fitting yourself into. Posture is something you are always discovering. So I, when she said, come up to standing, just a little shift in words. And this is actually a very basic teaching and practice, that a little shift in words makes a huge difference sometimes. Koans are based on little shifts in words. To draw you into familiar shifts of words and then shift them in a way you're not used to.

[53:32]

So she said, come up to standing. And I said, if you're saying so, a little enlightenment experience. And I've never been quite the same since. It's true. It was a little turning point in my life. Standing up, I turned. So I came, suddenly found myself coming up to stand. Then I had to discover standing. It just wasn't some sort of form. It was actually constantly discovering standing. And when you're in service, you shouldn't just be standing there, you should be discovering standing.

[55:02]

So we generally have our ankles about that far apart. So that's already a kind of discovery. Can your mind be there in your... So your feet are usually that far apart. Your knees can be slightly bowed if you'd like, or bent. And your heels can be very light on the ground. Your feet can feel like they're rising up and settling down at the same time. Yogic practice doesn't just mean some posture, but any posture you're in is flooded with awareness.

[56:04]

When we do Khin Hin, put our left thumb in our palm, We put our right hand over that. You put your arms parallel to the ground. And you turn your hands up slightly. Some do it this way. Which is okay, too. It's a little rigid, I think. This is too relaxed. And there's no awareness in it. No vigilance in it. So... Wachsamkeit. Wachheit. Yeah, I mean, one of the secrets of practice is that one-pointedness joins to a discerning awareness.

[57:26]

So there's one pointedness or settling on whatever you're settled on. And simultaneously a discerning awareness which notices that we're actually settled and a little less settled and a little less settled and settled and so forth. So that's all ritual. But it's ritual that brings your attention into what you're doing. So look at the difference if I come in the usual way. That's my ritual. It's a ritual because I like the security of it. And it's a ritual also because it helps me bring my attention to this immediacy.

[59:07]

And that's my actual continuity, not thinking continuity. So I come in and then I come to my cushion. And literally I say, hi, cushion. And I say, oh, I forgot to fluff you. So that's always also my ritual, to always return the cushion to its former shape. So I say, oh, hi, nicely fluffed cushion. And I think, I'm going to sit there. Might even hurt like hell. Yeah, but I'm going to sit there and it's wonderful.

[60:20]

A chance to find the dissolver of sugar. I have this kind of feeling. And so I bow to it. And then I turn around. Oh, look at you guys. It's an entirely new situation. It's actually great. I say, whoa, the room is wonderful. The window is wonderful. So then I recognize the place where I'm sitting. And look what I'm doing when I'm doing this. Schmaltzy to say I'm orchestrating my aura. Es ist das ein bisschen sentimental oder schmaltzig, wenn ich sage, ich orchestriere meine Aura. But true, you sort of bring your hands together and there's this kind of field of awareness.

[61:26]

You bring your hands together. Aber das ist wirklich so. Das ist eine Art Gefühl oder Feld von Gewahrsein, wenn ich die Hände so zusammenbringe. You bring your hands together at this chakra usually. And you bring your hands up and activate this chakra with your heel, the heel of your hand. And then you pull the hole up here. And with the tip to the fingers at the tip of the nose. And your thumbs together, not pushed, but gently, not like this. There's a lot of thinking in that gap. That makes a difference when you bring that closed. It's another one of those dimmer switches. This one turns up thinking, this one turns down thinking.

[62:26]

And then? And then you bow. So I brought all my energy together and then kind of dissolved it into the room. And if I didn't learn this ritual, in the interest of generalizations, I'd rush in and sit down. I wouldn't respect my cushion. I wouldn't feel respect for the room and each of you. So the ritual brings me into this feeling. You know, and I'm not Superman. I need all the help I can get.

[63:28]

And these rituals help me. So then I sit down, I try to bring my backbone straight down to the cushion. So my backbone is already straight when it comes down to the cushion. Yeah, and then I fold my... these guys. And then I... Again, feel this lifting back up through my back. And then I let some deep, sweet... dissolving sugar spread down through me. I think Hakuin or somebody calls it butter, but we could call it sugar.

[64:32]

And then I sit and recognize that it's time for lunch. And all the activities are like this. And the giving of form through ritual allows so many forms to be received. that the ritual is worth it if it doesn't become dead. But we have to have a balance between spontaneity and ritual.

[65:34]

And finding that balance is one of the secrets of practice. The true craft of practice. Dharma work. Dharma work of practice. Okay, thank you very much. Marilla, we said that Charlie not only knocked over our Buddha a while ago, He's trying to get back in our good graces now. And he joined you for Zazen, I guess. Or maybe he's trying to knock me off. Maybe he's trying to knock me off. But then you'd have to restore me with gold.

[66:38]

Yeah. So, as I said, I've said something quite simple. using these, you know, as a starting point, these words of the title. Also als Ausgangspunkt habe ich diese Begriffe von dem Titel genommen. That there's the giving of form. Dass dieses Formgeben... Something arises. Etwas taucht auf. And we give it form. Und wir geben diesem Form.

[67:40]

Mm-hmm. There's a tremendous fluidity here. What do we call it? The totality of all at onceness. And each of us bring things into particularity. We can say just what appears. But we're the condition of what appears. It's almost like each of us is a context. And we give the context the dimensions of our own body.

[68:43]

This is maybe some kind of understanding why constellations work in psychotherapy, why that works. Our context is the dimensions of our body and collects our karma. So what appears is already within our own context. So in fact, we're always making form. And our power as human beings and as Buddhas is giving form to that which appears. And then releasing that form.

[70:07]

That's a kind of basic activity of Zen practice. That you can sort of just get the feel of. Almost like a formula. Giving form and releasing. Like a little bird. You capture a little bird and you hold it a moment and you let it go and it flies off. In each form you hold, you release, you let it fly off. In a way, each of you right now is pulling all at once, everything interdependent and interpenetrating. You're pulling it into particularity.

[71:11]

Your particularity. Yes, so each of you is breathing right now. Your lungs are pulling air into particularity. I suppose it's a nice thing to do to air. The trees are doing it, we're doing it. Sort of massaging the air. Bring it in, massage it a little. Release it. Our lungs give form to it and release it. A lot happens at that moment keeping us alive.

[72:16]

But that basic action is there. Giving form and releasing. Do you pull things down in particularity? You've been doing it a long time. So you have the appearance of permanence. But in actual fact, it's a repeated form. drawing into particularity, And releasing. And the Buddha, in a way, mimics that activity. Or makes it conscious.

[73:17]

Or makes it awareness. Mm-hmm. And then you release it again. And in releasing it, you bring your attention to the mind that appears when you release it. So, okay, so there's an all-at-onceness. There's just what appears in your context. Already it's your context as it appears. And you give it form.

[74:18]

Oh, there you are. Hello, I give you form. Nice to see you. Goodbye. Goodbye. And you release it. And in releasing it, the mind of releasing it appears. And you can actually shift your mind to the mind of releasing. So there's the mind of gathering in and there's the mind of releasing. And formless meditation in Zen is to hold to the inner sensation of the mind of releasing. We call it something like undistracted awareness.

[75:33]

When you really have the sensation of it, and the sensation of when it becomes distracted, And you return it to a freedom from distraction. This is impervious to ordinary consciousness. Impervious means not able to be affected by ordinary consciousness. So form becomes the very basis of freedom. The necessary condition.

[76:36]

Its compassion, its caring, its desire itself which creates discerning awareness, if you desire something, that desiring is very close to caring about. And that caring about is very close to compassion. So the problem with desire from the point of view of practice is it generates a non-dual mind.

[77:39]

It generates a dualistic mind. I desire this, I don't have this. Ich will das haben, weil ich es nicht habe. But it's still a mind of caring. Aber es ist dennoch ein Geist von kümmern. This is like the keeping away calls me in. Das ist so wie dieses, das mich fernhalten ruft mich hinein. This is the working with opposites. So the very mind of desire as a dualistic mind, when you can keep releasing desire in dualistic mind, You generate the non-dual mind of compassion. Where you always feel included.

[78:40]

Where you don't feel excluded. Where you don't feel you're missing anything. So desire is the dualistic form of the mind of compassion. And we can work with all of our afflicting emotions in this way. Through opening the non-dual possibilities of each mind, each mind has its own qualities, and even Those qualities are retained when it's free from confliction or dualities.

[79:55]

And those qualities are retained to kept. So everything is retained when what? Even when they become non-dual. Aren't these the good qualities? Yeah. When you have an afflicting emotion like desire, it generates a certain kind of mind. And knowing the non-duality of that mind, the quality of desire is retained. But it's now manifested as caring and compassion. So it's a way of seeing mind in all its possibilities and seeing negative emotions which are afflicting emotions and not in trying to solve it by getting rid of the problem, but seeing it rooted in a mind which is transformed by giving it form and releasing it.

[81:19]

And then bringing into mindful attention the mind of releasing. Okay. Now that may seem outside your scope because it does depend on a developed or mature mindfulness. But it's actually, you know, maybe it takes some considerable practice to really rest in undistracted awareness.

[82:20]

Thanks. But the practice itself is not so difficult. Yeah. Can we open some windows somewhere? Maybe about 17. Or at least two or three. Thanks. Okay, so what I'm saying depends on understanding the practice of mindfulness. And engaging in the practice of mindfulness. As I say, exercising the muscle of attention. You can really bring attention to things. And your attention can just rest on whatever you bring it to.

[83:42]

And that depends on a certain stillness within your body, too. A certain coming together and resting together of mind and body. so that you're really present to what appears. The present becomes not the present of some kind of form, but more like presence in which form appears. And you meet that giving it form. Generating a mind that appears on each form. Generating a mind that appears in each form.

[84:57]

Again, let me try to just give you a sense of that. If I look at Neil, a Neil mind appears. Your mind, Neil and I, right now, because Neil's far out somewhere, I don't know where he is, he's kind of like, his eyes are closed and everything, you know. Some kind of mind appears when I look at Neil. And if I switch to looking at Andreas... Whoever sits in the front gets these problems. Now, they're both nice guys. As far as I know, and I know them pretty well. But still, it's a different mind that appears with Andreas.

[86:01]

And if I then release the mind that appears with Andreas, the released mind is a little different than the released mind after looking at Neil. But the released mind is always returning myself to a feeling of intrinsic mind or essential mind. What's the second? Fundamentally? Yeah, something like that. Yeah. And the practice is not to conceptualize this mind.

[87:18]

Don't conceptualize your mind as blissful. Or clear. Or intrinsic. But whatever I say, then I have to give you a direction. But then you release that direction. So as you develop the practice of mindfulness, and let mindfulness permeate you more and more, permeate your body, your breath, your activity, your speech, your conduct, your livelihood.

[88:23]

So we have these three of the Eightfold Path. Your speech, your conduct, your livelihood. These are the ways we manifest ourselves. These are the ways, these are our karmic nets. You probably catch a different kind of karma in your speech. Another kind of karma at work. Another kind of karma just in your behavior. And we want to permeate these three with mindfulness. permeate body, speech, and mind with mindful attention. And more and more then, this formula of giving form to what appears

[89:26]

Releasing... Oh, I made a... Giving... Not a nice sentence. You did? No. It wasn't a nice sentence? Let's start over again. Thank you. You know, that reminds me. I once organized, helped organize something called the Pablo Casals Masterclass. And he was a famous cellist. And there was some young man who came to the cello master class. And he just won one of the prizes in the Moscow competition for musicians. And he was hitting this note. He was, of course, very good. And Casale said to him, that note could be better. What do you mean? It sounds just right. He says, your hand isn't beautiful. So you have the fingering right, but your hand isn't beautiful.

[91:09]

If you get the fingering this way, your hand looks beautiful. If your hand looks beautiful, the note will sound better. Okay, so let's go back to a good sentence. So we have this formula which you hold in the mind of mindfulness as a way of thinking, as a kind of thinking. You don't think about it discursively. You just hold it in your changing context. You let the context think for you. Yeah, you let the context speak to you. It's the basic way to open a teaching up to yourself.

[92:14]

Das ist die grundlegende Weise, wie man eine Lehre sich einem gegenüber öffnen lässt. Also in your mindfulness you hold this form in. Yeah. Giving form. releasing, holding to the mind of releasing. Something like that. You can make up a little formula. Giving form to that which appears, releasing form, and holding to the mind of releasing. And this little formula will get caught in the words and without thinking about it it will keep finding its way in mindfulness until you see how to practice this.

[93:28]

Or it starts practicing itself through you. And you'll start releasing. And you can just use the single word releasing. Emphasize that for a while. So a little mantra. Releasing. You look at somebody and you feel releasing. You notice you're breathing and you feel releasing. Whatever it is, you can bring the word as a form of attention, releasing. Like that. Or you can work with giving form, too. Because the giving form to is appearing from releasing.

[94:46]

You know, when I look at Neil again, the released Andreas is sitting over here somewhere. So then I turn in awe. I give form to the released Andreas. So giving form to... Andreas doesn't like all this attention. That is how he shyly turned his head away. So just the practice of giving form to... Already has the freedom of releasing in it. Yeah, I like that.

[95:35]

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