He doesn't know, like most of us don't know, we're always sitting beside our gravestone. A cheery note in a rather silent group today compared to yesterday. Yeah. Maybe we should have portable gravestones. You can actually order them in the internet and they sell you like 30 kilos via mail. Why have you been looking this up? You been in a bad mood? Can you order your desk too?

[01:01]

No. That happens too. Okay. What will you tell me? Let's go to D.M.A. and let's see him. No, please. In our group, we started with, how does it not work? Pausing for the particular. Is that what you mean? Yeah. It is, okay. And zwar... The partner. The spouse. The partner.

[02:02]

So to pause for the particular partner. This could ruin a marriage. And then we turned to him when it worked. I learned not understanding, so please go on. Maybe he knows what he meant now. And as far as the Raxo is concerned, the idea came up which can be transferred to another idea.

[03:45]

or does not want to complete something or finish something. One might succeed in pausing when one does not urgently want to finish or complete something. Namokie Butsu, Namokie Butsu, Namokie Butsu, okay. That one is concentrated on the one stitch one is taking right now. And one person also said that silence at Namokie Butsu, perhaps the obligation to be more silent, One person said that the rule that you shouldn't talk while you're sewing your rucksack helps with pausing in particular.

[05:11]

And it is possible with any and all small things to pause. and one can successfully do it when one activates only one of the five senses. One does not really do it oneself, but one allows one sense to be opened more. We also talked about childhood. And many of us thought or had the feeling that when they were children they had practiced this actually.

[06:18]

Probably so. She wants to name one example. Eckart had a music teacher who was rather boring. They had old-fashioned school benches. And he was very tired. Whenever the teacher said, pay attention, he became tired. Until today. Until today.

[07:19]

You're just paying attention to something different. In the school benches and desks, pupils had scratched into them. And he made those sketches deeper and wider with his pen. So it enabled the finger to follow these sketches. And he was very absorbed in that activity. And was in his own space, a world. The teacher got extremely angry and slapped him.

[08:35]

And then came more ideas, to feel the wind on the skin and so on. So that as a child you just had such an affinity to such a retreat. As a child, one had an affinity to kind of withdrawing in one's own world or into... To withdraw into... Maybe feeling with one's senses, like feeling the wind on the skin. Mm-hmm. And then the relation to the Quran came up. The path in breathing. The path in breathing that one notices. To notice the paths in breathing to help to cut off the myriad streams.

[10:14]

We also talked about the dynamics of focusing on one particular and then opening it and looking at the field or sensing the field and going back and forth between these two. that it really takes you out of identifying with thinking. And then there was the idea of changing the position of these four noble postures, that this also helps. When one takes a walk, for example, to just stop and feel how one stands. And then, if I understand Manuela correctly, also the change of like between sitting, standing, lying down and walking to notice the change of these postures.

[11:51]

And one person talked about his or her experience with the Makahanya. They went swimming in the ice-cold sea. And before they thought about it a lot, we were of course afraid that it might be too cold and they might freeze to death. We go into the sea and recite the Makahanya at the same time. Und tatsächlich haben sie nichts gespürt. They didn't feel cold. They didn't feel anything when they went into the ice cold.

[12:56]

They didn't? No. The fears had disappeared. And the temptation was not that it was so ice cold. Really? Avlokiteshvara was swimming beside you. Yeah, I can tell. Okay. Okay. Magical Buddhism, why not? Yeah. Okay. Anything else? Maybe of the others. Yeah. I hope that... The first part of what you said about Raksa sewing, etc., I hope that Otmar includes that in his teaching of Raksa sewing from now on.

[14:13]

Okay, who's next? The next one. I have permission from our group to do this in English. And Neil, who is also in the group, will translate it into German. Is that all right? Why not? Yeah. Okay. Well, one intentional practice for the particular involved breathing. So one of the intentional practices for the individual is to inhale. when the moment between breathing in and inhaling and exhaling would be celebrated, let's say, and to pause in that moment. And also doors, this particular person used doors as a moment to be aware of which foot is going in first.

[15:20]

And any time any of these procedures were used he had a feeling of opening in himself. And a feeling that something stops. And that was described by another person who had the same feeling as the feeling of coming out of a cloud. One of our people found it most convenient to practice with visual things, where objects caught his attention and he let them work on him, observe him carefully. And that also was a very intentional kind of practice. One person said that the attitude of receptivity was important for him to become involved in pausing for the particular.

[16:55]

With the feeling of allowing the things to come forward. And a red light that turned on for him was when he found himself anticipating. It could be anything, even in Aoyoki, waiting for the clackers or someone to give a signal. And then to breathe out and let it come. A red light or a green light? Just a light went on. Okay. Cultivating an attitude of letting the things be a point of reference as opposed to having yourself always be the point of reference.

[18:16]

And that practice had been initiated and was associated with a particular koan, 99 from the Book of Serenity, What is Every Atom Samadhi? And then another person from our group practiced pausing for the particular, mostly with people, and had an intentional change in the way that she approached people or met people. And another person in our group practiced this holding on to the individual in the encounter with other people, by changing their way of encountering other people. And it involved paying attention to eye contact.

[19:34]

And then becoming aware of the feeling of energy that that eye contact brought up in general. And she would practice that in situations where there also, well, she was shopping perhaps, and with people that she didn't know in particular, where there was no context of some kind of interchange expected. It was also practiced in situations where there was no other background, such as in the supermarket or in the train. And then several people in the group said that could also be very dangerous under certain circumstances.

[20:35]

Certain areas of Berlin, you don't want it. Several people said that Johanneshof particularly encouraged that kind of open contact. And then another person He feels that he gives himself permission to let things speak to him, to let things give their message to him instead of interpreting it.

[21:36]

And one person said that she also got the permission to let things speak to her instead of interpreting them. So that things should come to her. And in such moments he feels that his own boundaries dissolve in a way and he has no skin. And then another person said sometimes the practice would involve literally stopping, stopping the movement. And that she also tried to work with letting it be a little bit more subtle, so that actually the movement of the body wouldn't have to be stopped, but the stopping could take place in the mind.

[22:47]

and that the development of the practice is to allow it to become more subtle or finer, so that it no longer has to be held directly physically, but that this holding takes place in the mind. Whereby the feeling that arose from that practice was in the body. Whereby the feeling that arose from that practice was in the body. And it had something to do with a feeling of being pregnant. And then there were specific things that people mentioned that come not in a planned way. For instance, a phrase from a koan, the unique breeze of reality, has become a point of pausing whenever you feel air, whenever you feel a breeze.

[23:49]

And that phrase comes to mind and with that then associations with the whole thing. And then there were individual things like, for example, from the choir, like the unique breeze of reality, that it takes something out again, so that in fact, or has taken a course, that in fact, when a luftzug, when a lufttag comes, such a conscious pause and conscious stopping takes place. Or ducks. Wild ducks. Yeah, wild ducks, yeah. Yeah. Also small birds, not only ducks. Can trigger that. Small girls? Small birds, yeah. Can trigger that, not only just ducks. Not just ducks, okay. And then there are things that have always been resting even before specific practice with Zen or this intentional practice started.

[24:55]

Children who are very involved with what they're doing, who are very absorbed with what they're And then there were a few other specific things that arrested people's attention. The smell of licorice. Or the sound of chopsticks which remind one of grandma's knitting needles. I think that if anyone could think of anything else... Thank you.

[26:13]

We have in our group also collected examples for practices, In our group, we... I don't need, since many of you are in the group, necessarily complete reports, but just a kind of feeling for what the conversation is. Yes, and that's why I would like to show these examples. I have collected examples for concrete practices, but I won't cite all the examples. OK. But more in the direction that is more noticeable. but I'll try to describe more the direction that you can feel in these examples. One direction is that the surroundings is important and can help a lot as a practice.

[27:32]

Many people feel it's easier when they are here in Johanneshof to pause for something than when they are outside in their everyday life. And people describe basically two different forms. One is intentionally pausing and the other is to be open that things come up and spring up by themselves and catch the attention. And there are several possibilities within this practice to switch from an object to a field.

[28:36]

So one switch was from the object to the field of mind. Another shift was from a detail to the field of that detail. And yet another one was from the detail to the attraction that made that detail come up. And pausing, basically everyone agreed that pausing meant stopping from thinking, make thoughts stop.

[29:50]

Or putting things into a perspective. And then there were several criteria to describe the success of this pausing, whether it worked or didn't work, or happened or didn't. For example, a feeling of nourishment. of stepping outside of regular time, a more precise feeling of the sense, a more lively feeling of the sense, It gives me the feeling to go through life with you and to experience the same things as you.

[31:22]

Anyone else want to say something? Yeah? I want to ask something about a text in the koa, but it has nothing to do with the pause. Oh, really? Is it possible? No. That's okay. I look for several days to the fall in Koran 1 and in Koran 2. And the first part are the same.

[32:53]

And then I look special to the second part of Quran 2. The first part was the same and I looked at the second part of Quran 2. and the position of Master Chi, because he is called Master. How I understand it, he is staying with the not understanding man who does not understand the reality, but he is staying with the one who stays in conventional truth.

[33:56]

Okay. So what are you asking? Now, I don't understand. He is a master, Bodhisattva is a master, he is a master too. What is he doing? What is he doing to... I completely don't understand. I only can ask you, what is his position? What is he doing? I never met the guy, so... I mean, what is he doing in the koan? Why is this example there? I think it is close to the story and the reason why it is in there.

[35:07]

So you're asking me why is the story about Master Chi included in the koan? Yes, in the koan, after that first part. The connection. I'd have to look at the text, but so maybe I'll bring it up tomorrow on the teisho. Someone else. Yeah. When I observe in my everyday life when these pauses appear by themselves, then it is often by chance that something is brought down like this. then it happens on such occasions when something is brought down or some concrete object like a glass or a book or an incense stick?

[36:30]

Other occasions when my children maybe tell me something and I say, oh, or hmm. All these occasions have in common that this pause occurs more in the exhaling. Mm-hmm. And then it's as if an inhale follows, but then has more space, is wider. If you practice this, When one practices with it?

[37:50]

When one uses it as technique to make these pauses? Is that a question? Does it make sense to... change this habit to pass on the exhale and maybe try to pass on the inhale to make it more conscious? Or is it more the point that one should be conscious of these passes as they happen and to intensify them rather? Why not try all those things?

[38:50]

Okay. If it occurs to you, try it. When we eat ariyoki, I notice many such pauses, but there's also some trying, making an attempt. Where it would be in my nature, For me it would be more natural to have less pauses, of fewer pauses and to be more conscious of these fewer pauses and to let them grow. What happens in the middle of an Oyoki practice when the paws start to grow and everyone else is finished?

[40:01]

On the other hand, the artificial becomes natural. Okay, the artifice, yeah. Well, Oyoki practice... Eating with an Oryoki is a practice. And each particular is a kind of little pause because it's a series of particulars. But there shouldn't be any extra ones. Part of the Oryoki practice is that there's no extra moves. like you don't put your chopstick down unless it's part of your eating you don't just take it out and clean it and put it down you only do it if it's part of your eating yeah thanks Melita

[41:11]

Yes, I have to share something, even though it might sound a bit weird. The first three days during your teishos, I didn't try, I just was very, very receptive. And for me it felt, especially after, as if I had been hibernating. And I was very receptive, very sensitive, and at the same moment maybe in the kind of space I usually know from the sheen. And it's very intimate. I chatted yesterday with my group. So Paul encouraged me because he said maybe at least I felt the same way during the last session.

[42:25]

And now I really feel a different kind of quality in my practice. So I start feeling this energy field much more intense than ever before. And I could feel the energy of some person so near as if I was one with this person. And the whole field sometimes like a field of story telling to me. A field of story telling.

[43:26]

Yes, like a fairy tale. What seems contradictory, I found out that being really receptive is a hard job. So, at day third or fourth, I was really crawling in my bed like a bear in his cave. And I'm starting to, oh, now I'm going to dream time. And within all these days, my dream activities were extremely high. But in a way that I know I was dreaming a dream.

[44:48]

That's all I just wanted to share with you guys. Guys. Yeah, okay. Guys and gals. Guys and girls. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, Christian. Plenty of pauses, I realized. Also, like getting stuck in my, in the profound world, but allowing myself then to be well. Especially it was very helpful for me when I realized that the Cactus Period in Creston, those, I knew about it, but I realized that being in the presence of those permanent nows, especially eating gruel in the evening, which was a perfect teaching for me.

[46:06]

realizing that it's the most perfectly possible right now. This helped me to get off that hook. And so this kept going in my everyday life, which is an enormous breakthrough to realize those moments or those pauses of Hey, this is it. Well, not even that. It's just the pause and... Yeah, it's... Some people notice when you're at Crestone or in Sashin that there's two meanings to the word gruel. Gruel is, you know... The leftovers pile together.

[47:10]

And mixed up, you know. And grueling is something that's very difficult. So, Frank? Frank? Could you say it in German, please? Oh, I'm sorry, in German, please. I have that experience sometimes. I said that in German? I have in Creston, I have in Grodek, and he has my concept of food. Unfortunately, they also had a very large-scale concept, which I had overestimated, because it looked a bit shabby or something like that.

[48:25]

And you sat there, there was no choice. and I was supposed to eat, and suddenly, in this moment, I was so aware that there was no time at all, but that these moments of now were following each other, and it was just another moment of now, and if I take the whole thing seriously, then this concept of now, then that is the best possible food that there is for the whole period of now. Okay, Frank? Pausing for the individual. Pausing for the particular?

[49:34]

What does it mean to pause? Can I take a pause? What does it mean right now in this moment while I'm saying this? to pause. What does it mean now when you are listening to me and I am talking? On one hand I am afraid of that. Just talking in the situation. And it's one reason why I practice to dare to go into the moment or be in the moment as the moment is.

[50:39]

And of course when Roshi says first Christian and then Frank immediately my head starts to work and be active. What should I say? and really I should report from my group and what should I say and I'm very busy with that but I also notice something in me doesn't want that anymore and wants to dare to be in the moment And it's of course different now than it was two hours ago or it will be two hours from now.

[51:55]

But to do it right now, it's a great feeling that one can do it. Ich könnte jetzt immer weiter sprechen. Continue to talk. What I experience or feel is that the stuff that Rashi presents to us, I mean, in fullness, so many things, so that we don't know what we should start with first and for how long. I feel in it a feeling of life and space of life or room of life.

[53:03]

Like a living room where other people watch TV and do other things. And I'm not so much interested in taking one of these advices or suggestions and to practice with one particular suggestion. I just live with these things and that's what I do. And when I live with these things, they come forward and show themselves. I'm there for it.

[54:08]

Yeah, I think your questions that you're asking yourself And your practice and your daring to dare the moment. Yeah, this is good. But also part of your motivation is fighting with practice. And your fighting with practice produces some good questions and efforts, but it also kind of gets you tangled up. But you're using the fighting as part of practice. But sometimes you might pause for no fighting. Well, oh yes, please. I want to add something.

[55:13]

Yesterday I already said something about pausing and how it happens to me with this erasing, that she erases the one moment to be open for the next moment. That's what you said yesterday. And now she wants to add something. What I want to add now, that the break for me is not only about stopping, Pausing is not just stopping, but that I also feel emptiness. But exactly this disappearance is the pause for me.

[56:35]

So it's actually this quality at the moment. So the disappearance is actually the moment for me, which brings me closer to the pause. In your last seminars you emphasized to notice the disappearing of words or a sound or things like that. So that has become my focus much more and that I notice it more at that That is what pausing is for me now. Now, yes. And I want to say thank you to you, because I had asked about penetrating, and I feel that I have received many answers, and I want to say thank you for that.

[57:37]

Okay, you're welcome. Yes, bitte. Ich möchte nur etwas ganz Kleines herausgreifen. I want to take up one small thing something that doesn't work for me when I'm very much caught in self-referential thinking I notice And I'm kind of angry about it. And I say to myself, now I go to the magic moment. And the self-referential thinking stops. You go to the magic moment. This is one of your wisdom phrases.

[58:40]

No. So when I notice that there is this thinking going on, I try to cut this stream of thoughts, and I try to let go of the thoughts and to pause in this concrete moment. Okay, and did it have something to do with cakes earlier? No, I heard something weird like cakes. You say it goes onto my cakes. Onto my biscuit.

[59:43]

Onto your biscuit. I thought you were having self-referential thinking when anybody presented the cakes. I thought you were having self-referential thinking when anybody presented the cakes. Okay. What I want to say with this is that when the energy of the thoughts and the thinking is so strong, it's really difficult to pause. It's about the most important time to make the effort, though. Like, it may be easier here at Johanneshof, but where it's not easy is where to try it. Even if just a little symbolic doses. Yes, Otmar? What I noticed and what I also noticed in our group is that many examples are brought up and all these examples come from our memory

[61:03]

how it was when we practiced. And now in this group, where everything is brought together again and again, then it's almost like a bit of a theoretical transition. And where I myself can notice in myself, but also in some moments in the group, what kind of difference it is to stop at the moment and maybe not to listen and where there is a moment of silence. And what kind of difference does that suddenly make to listening and, that is not devaluing, to this theoretical processing and what suddenly such a silence or such a small break can also make in our group here. Yeah and listening to all those people and it's kind of sometimes a little bit the feeling as if it is sort of overflowing of all these memories and how I practice and

[62:21]

what we experienced and then what we leave it is to just go to a little pause in this group and just feel the silence that there is no talking and that's also a pause for the particular and what a difference that makes to listen and talking and trying to say something that makes sense and just stay with a little pause and And it's also a kind of that the group creates a field of where we can all pause for a while, yeah. Okay. Schöne, darauf bin ich gerade eben gekommen. Mir ist auch mal klar geworden, es redet immer nur einer und dreißig schweigen und das Schweigen zu hören, I just noticed that it's only one who is talking and 30 who are listening are silent and to listen for that silence.

[63:28]

That's good. We have to stop in a minute. You know, I... Yeah, I'd like very, very much to hear how you make use of a practice like this. By the way, how do you say to pause for the particular in German? Or do you? Do you just use English? What do you say in German? What? What did you say? It's not holding on to the eyes. What did you say? The individual. For the singular. What have we just said?

[64:31]

For the singular. I think it's easier, because that's such an unnecessary term, to pause for the particular, to stay there, because for the special, for the special, everything doesn't fit so well. For the individual? I think it's best to pause for the particular. That's just a discussion. So Ottmar prefers to stay with the English phrase because it is kind of difficult to translate the particular into German. You get, when you, there are a variety of words and they all add other associations and nuances and that doesn't feel quite right. Well, I ask because, you know, for me, You know, most of the phrases that I use, well, in the beginning I took them from Buddhist teachings. And then I began to create many of them in English.

[65:45]

And I created then because, you know, they helped my practice. I must have created a hundred, I don't remember. But then most of them sort of disappeared. I used them in particular circumstances and then they didn't become ones I initially taught. But I think to pause for the particular is one that I... created at some time after I started teaching in Europe. I think I created Already Connected also when I started teaching in Europe. Just now is enough, though, comes from years ago.

[66:53]

Now, when I use this very mind as Buddha or something like that, that comes from the teaching. Just now is enough comes... in something I made up. I mean, it's made up in its English alliteration, but it's not made up from, you know, it's still the background. It's certainly Buddhist philosophy and teaching. Alliteration. Alliteration. The sounds that are similar. We have the same word, but... It's about the sound, yeah. Also diese Alliteration, wo es um den ähnlichen Klang gilt, das ist halt natürlich...

[67:54]

And I discovered recently that cats in English have two more lives than they do in Germany. So, I mean, cats in America celebrate alliteration. Cats in America have nine lives, but in Germany I think they have seven. So it must be because of alliteration and not because of any folk story. So how do you say a cat has seven lives? Katz hat sieben Leben. Katz hat sieben Leben. See, that's alliteration. A cat has nine lives is alliteration, nine lives. Neun Leben, nee. Sieben Leben.

[69:15]

Sieben Leben. Sounds better, yeah. Sounds better. Than nine lives. Yeah. Katz might not agree. It would sound funny probably in German to say nine. Yeah, it would be. Katz hat neun Leben. Okay, so these... Yeah. These... Wisdom phrases or turning words depend on how they stick together in a language. Okay. But it turns out that At least in English, and I think somehow in our practice, pausing for the particular has a tremendous dharmic and karmic, it's a great karmic and dharmic tool. And it turns out that this pausing for the particular, I say it in English, is a powerful dharmic and karmic tool.

[70:17]

One of the things it does, well, first of all, although I really deeply appreciate understanding that you're using a phrase like this. At the same time, I feel a little bit like the secret is out. Or there's something secret about this practice To have so much talk about it makes me a little nervous or, I don't know, something. Because it interrupts your usual mind when you use it, you know, moment by moment.

[71:30]

And that it interrupts our usual mind opens us to a kind of feeling of something secret. Yeah. One of the things that happens is, and I think a number of you during this recitation, a number of you during this, what you've said, have implied that it opens you to a kind of stillness or stoppedness. And this is true. In fact, it becomes... a kind of conduit for the mind of meditation.

[72:45]

It makes usual consciousness more porous. And if you get used to it, it's almost like in an artesian way, artesian, quellen way, um, Awareness, or the mind of meditation, seeps up into consciousness. And after you get some skill at this pausing for the particular, then you can start to use it more conceptually. So what does it do? It makes a little opening into the... Moment by moment minutiae.

[74:05]

Minutiae is the plural of minutiae. So it kind of lets you in begins to let you in, give you an opening to the moment-by-moment minuti. What happens in the moment-by-moment minuti? Well, one of the things, that's where your views are functioning. Okay, let's just use the simple example that somebody brought up earlier of space connects. We take for granted in Western culture that space separates.

[75:23]

And we take it as a fact and not a cultural view. Now, there's three kind of ways of thinking about karma. One is the karma of actions. Second is the karma of morals. And third is... that's the word, karmic views, I can't think of the, anyway, how you're, how you're

[76:25]

have cultural karmic views built into you. And this is the emphasis of karma in later Buddhism. That is the emphasis on karma in later Buddhism. So if you have the view that space separates, as I often say, that actually is present in you before perception. And that view will then influence how you perceive. So if you have the view of... of space separates, then that's what you'll perceive.

[77:28]

And you'll be absolutely certain it's true because your perceptions, the pramana of perceptions, your perceptions have told you that space separates. Because the pramana of perception... A pramana is a perception. I mean, we're saying that pramana is perceptual or inferential truth. Well, here I'm just showing how acculturated views alter perceptions so they're not true. Now, if you change the acculturated view, To something like, well, space separates, but it also connects.

[78:50]

The moon is affecting our tides and our... Procreative cycles and so forth. So space also connects. So the phrase I've given you is already connected. Which is an antidote to the... the view we have, we're already separated. And I think if you work with already connected in every personal encounter, every intersubjective space, you'll find you really relate to people differently than if you start the relationship with already separated. So, in the midst of the moment-by-moment

[79:53]

Manushi. Your views are floating around organizing your experience it's almost impossible to see them but pausing for the particular gives you a little entry because you can begin to see how the particulars organize themselves Now we could talk about direct perception as Otmar brought up earlier. We could talk about karma grabbing ingredients. Or the field of conditioned causation.

[81:21]

Or the field of interdependent causation. All of that's going on in the minutiae Moment by moment, manushi. So we have this karmic and surgical and dharmic tool to pause for the particular. Now it takes some time to use this tool. But one of the first things it does, it's a conduit. lets awareness and the mind of meditation come up into our activity.

[82:23]

And the rest of what I might say, we better leave for Taisho or the next... winter branches, another day, another dharma. And there's a number of you wonderful. Folks who have not said anything so far in the seminar and I think you know who you are. And we're going to make a special wall back there which you can sit behind. for nine years.

[83:29]

And you're enjoying the silence of the nine-year pause. Thanks very much. Oh, still, I keep trying to meet the Eno's requirements, but I tried, you know. Thank you very much. Thanks for translating. And I can see Krista. Krista decided not to dance in the middle this time. Well, there's courage. Frank might dare the moment, you might dare the dance.

[84:27]

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