Why does it count off the seconds? Is there any reason it counts? Yeah, it just tells you the time that it has recorded. Oh, okay. All the recording machines. Oh, they do? Yeah. Just not so expressive. You mean there's a clock hidden in there? Okay. Someone has something he would like to bring up. If I direct attention to whatever rises up there, attention to something, then there is movement.

[01:21]

When I direct attention to whatever appears, then there is movement through that. And that means that this interdependence somehow is being influenced through my influence. And the way I understand it, it exists independent of me, but at the same time I'm also creating it. Yes, that's right. We have no choice about it. About the basic situation. Within the situation we have what appears as choice.

[02:32]

And we also have real choices. Okay, someone else? Yes. Conceptual thinking, the way I see it with many people, is most of the time unconscious and not really conscious. I would be interested to know if from a Buddhist point of view, there is something like craftsmanship, or if there is clarity to distinguish this, or to justify it, these concepts. And I wonder whether, from a Buddhist perspective, whether there are any tools with which to explore these unconscious concepts, maybe what's a concept and what's not a concept the person is holding.

[03:38]

Well, you can't usually see a concept. I mean, sometimes people say, that how I'm teaching is very philosophical. It certainly wasn't my intention. It's been forced on me. Because the main obstacle to practice are hidden philosophical concepts. I mean, we live, we're living, if you're in Western culture, you're living in the philosophies or philosophy or views which shape Western culture. You know, and it's in very simple things.

[04:49]

An example I always use is when we say, it rains. And we don't have a way to say simply, rain rains. Or as I said, you know, we say that we're going into the future. Because we think that way, we try to plan for the future. We try to go into a future based on the present. And we try to make the future predictable based on the present. But in Chinese language, you don't go into the future.

[05:59]

The future comes to you in its unpredictableness. You don't go into the future, the future is coming at you. Okay, well you still plan for it, but you plan for its unexpectedness primarily, not for its predictability. Yeah. So when you plan for its unexpectedness, you're much more likely to plan in a real way for illness, death, etc. You tend to see more likely where something isn't working, you tend to see a concept when it comes into conflict or connection with another concept. So that's all I can say about that right now. But you have to, what I'm doing all the time, trying to be an iPod, I mean an iTeach, is that I'm trying to find a way to express the difference between the concept which animate Buddhism and the concept which animate our life.

[07:39]

And so it's ended up, I mean, I'm always, what I'm always, as far as I'm concerned, I'm always speaking about practice. Everything I talk about is rooted in practice. It's not rooted in philosophy at all. But trying to express practice, I keep bumping into Western philosophy, Western speaking. I mean, that's a basic approach in Buddhism. A kind of floating attention. But it's rooted in the experience of no reference point mind. No reference point mind means emptiness. So for a practitioner, freely suspended attention is a teaching of emptiness.

[09:03]

But when it's a technique, it can be a technique within a view system which isn't based on emptiness. But you might not see that until you try to bring freely suspended attention to everything. And you say, oh, I can't do it with everything. Why can't I do it with everything? Oh, because I don't have a view of emptiness. Compassion and wisdom are the basis for understanding emptiness. What has been hanging over me from before is the question of why we always have in the foreground our separateness and not our connection.

[10:35]

What stuck with me from our previous discussion is why our notion of separation is always so predominant rather than our notion of connectedness. And it just starts for me to connect with what choice do I make with my attention. And that's a path that would interest me. Okay. Now, in the context of which I'm speaking today... Okay. So you've noticed this question. Why do we notice separation more than connected? Yeah, you see, we've noticed that. We've noticed that. The second part is the question of why is that so? Could it be otherwise? So then you hold those two things in mind equally. The holding of those two things in mind equally is the kind of attention we're talking about in mindfulness.

[12:12]

So we could say that right now, from before the break, The question I'm focused on is what kind of attention is the attention of mindfulness and how is it different from usual attention? Das ist die Frage, auf die ich mich hier fokussiere. Die Frage ist, welche Art von Aufmerksamkeit ist die Aufmerksamkeit, die in der Achtsamkeit liegt, und wie unterscheidet die sich von gewöhnlicher Aufmerksamkeit? Also sagen wir mal, wir versuchen das zu beantworten. Die Widersprüche gleichwertig freigesetzt halten kann. and is informed by trust that there's nothing outside which can answer it, so an answer can only come from inside, from the parts themselves.

[13:27]

Yeah, so people talk to me about koans, right? And they say, well, you know, we're going to look at this koan, and I haven't studied enough to look at the koan. Or they hope to find some commentary which helps them understand. This is a total mistake. It's practically true sometimes a commentary will give you some suggestion. But there's commentaries within the koan itself, several levels of commentary.

[14:29]

But those commentaries are always to put, they usually add ingredients, so the ingredients float in this space, explanation, and don't create this space that you won't have any understanding of the koan. So we can use this evenly suspended attention as one of the fulcrums in which we try to understand this. Okay. Someone else? Yes. I'm interested in the question of doing and letting in this context.

[15:35]

Because I can do a lot with the attention, but I can also let it go. And then something happens and I would be interested in how that relates to it. I'm interested in that context, in the question of doing and not doing, because I can apply my attention and actively do something, but usually in the field of practice whatever I intend then won't happen, or I cannot do it. or I cannot do it, and rather hold the intention, maybe also as an ingredient. Who are you trying to fool? Not me. Ned. Well, of course there are many occasions that you make practical decisions.

[16:42]

The car has a leaking tire and an oil drip or something, and I've got to get up this morning and take it to the shop before I go to work. Evenly suspended attention doesn't help too much. But in the basic way, the fundamental attitude toward the world would be something like evenly suspended attention. In this evenly suspended attention, you can have an intention, which is also evenly suspended. And you trust that that will produce a result, or not a result, or satisfaction, or freedom from suffering, or something.

[18:14]

Trust is an important ingredient in it. If there isn't the dynamic of trust, not much happens. It's a kind of faith. But it's a faith in the ingredients and not a faith in a prime mover. No, we can say the early teaching, early Buddhist teaching, it is an early Buddhist teaching, one of the most basic, the metta, somewhat transforms the teaching. How does mindfulness or attentionfulness help allow us to see how we actually exist?

[19:33]

Okay, so that's a third question. view which informs the practice of the four foundations of mindfulness. Okay. Anyone else? Yeah. You talked about the body learning. I'm wondering, how can it relearn? Unlearn and relearn. Does it have to forget something so that it can learn something new?

[20:40]

You mean, how does the body learn attention, a certain kind of attention? Okay. Okay, there's six main targets within the first foundation of mindfulness. Your activities. Your breath. A death. the four noble postures, the four elements, and the 32 parts of the body. Now, those six territories are considered the most effective way to bring attention to how we exist. Okay, now when you bring your attention to your activities, it comes and goes. Yeah, and sometimes it stays and sometimes it doesn't. All right. Attention brought to the body changes the body.

[22:21]

Again, my kind of ridiculous example. Let's say I'm sitting here like this. I can't stop it from sitting up. So attention changes the body. Okay. So when you bring attention to your activities, your bodily activities, We're actually changing the body. And you can use certain mantra concepts to focus this attention. The simplest to do and most classic is on each step you feel just now arriving.

[23:38]

And when you do a simple thing like that, just now arriving, you're separating attention from going somewhere. Okay, that's actually extremely important. So eventually, attention is just rests on attention itself. This Buddhist practice is rooted in bringing attention to attention. Okay, so Now, in addition to it beginning to change the body, it also is strengthening attention.

[24:43]

So you're freeing attention from anything but itself. Attention in and of itself, we could say in English. Wir können sagen, Aufmerksamkeit an und für sich. And that attention starts getting stronger. Und diese Aufmerksamkeit, die wird stärker. And finally it can just stay with your activity. Und letztendlich kann die einfach bei deiner Aktivität bleiben. With no effort. Then you have what's called strong attention. In a way, you've trained the attention. So, the attention changes the body. And the practice trains... And that you can tell... I've often given you the two words nourishment and complete.

[25:53]

You can tell when that... dual training is going on, or dual development, is when you feel nourished and complete at each moment. Now, again, a rigorous approach to Buddhism to enter the mandala of Buddha's activities, you never stray from feeling nourished and complete. Okay. Now, of course that's not true. No. But your view is, you will never stray from feeling nourished and complete.

[27:01]

At the same time, you know you will. And so you bring attention, as I said earlier, to nourishment. And the mindfulness which knows you've lost a sense of nourishment actually is kind of nourishing. Okay. So that's bringing attention to your activities. Now, you bring attention to the breath. You bring the attention to the breath. So I described that the breath is like an exercise machine in the gym. And since we know that we change our breath, we will direct our attention to it. So we know what it should be. But we don't really think that we're also again developing attention and joining it to the breath.

[28:25]

And the whole process of joining attention to the breath is extremely far-reaching. One thing it does when you finally accomplish it, and as you know, you've already accomplished the position we're sleeping in at night. But our breath is usually attached to our emotions and our thinking. Yeah, and our breath is very responsive to our fears and joys and so forth. Okay. Now, if you bring attention to the breath... until finally they merge.

[29:45]

As I've often said, what you've done is you've taken the experience of continuity out of thinking and brought it into the breath. And think in contact Continuity of self established in thinking is one of the main ways self functions and develops. When you do it, but you're not always thinking to find out who you are. Your sense of continuity is established in your physical presence. Then attention just rests on the breath. Speaking now, attention is resting in my speaking, which is my breath.

[31:06]

Okay, so this is a process of embodiment. The most classic in all teachings, process of embodiment. Okay. Now, you continue and you bring attention to your postures and the four elements, fluidity, etc. and the so-called 32 parts of the body And the 32 parts of the body, it means you can also now have developed a way to bring attention into the body and explore your... I won't do it here unless somebody twists my arm.

[32:09]

But once attention has... It's like a flashlight. You can move around in your body. Once attention has done all of those things, and attention to death means attention, as I've been saying, like to the bell, hearing the fading of the bell, Und Aufmerksamkeit auf den Tod, das bedeutet, so wie ich das vorhin schon gesagt habe, wenn die Glocke schlägt zum Beispiel, dass sie die Aufmerksamkeit auf das Entschwinden des Klanges lenkt. It means you've developed a tension which notices fading away rather than appearance. Das bedeutet, dass du Aufmerksamkeit entwickelt hast, die das Entschwinden oder Verschwinden bemerkt anstelle des Erscheinens. Or when it notices appearance as a fading away.

[33:13]

Now, for instance, a Zen teacher might, you know, say to a student, Stop that village bell. The word student would say, already stopped. Rock. Now a rock doesn't fade away very fast. But you know it will. But your own attention to it fades and changes. Now that enters you into, it's one of the doors to beginning to experience things as dharmas. Und das ist eines der Eintrittstüren, die dir dabei helfen kann, die Dinge als damals wahrzunehmen.

[34:16]

Die Einzigartigkeit von Moment zu Moment zu erfahren. Also nur damit wir so ein gemeinsames Verständnis herstellen. Es gibt keine Gegenwart. There's only a duration in your senses. The present is a knife edge. It's always past, past, past, past. Whoa, that was quick. The present is pretty quick. Yeah, it's very quick. We live on this knife edge. Okay. It's a One minute to twelve. No. One minute to five. And it'll work.

[35:17]

But we have an experience of it. What is that experience? That experience is the duration that we create in our senses. And each of us is creating this duration. And to a great extent, because of our culture, we have an overlapping experience of this duration. This is wider and more complex for some of us than others. And if I'm going to speak to you I've got to feel each of your individual durations. And I've got to speak to the centers of overlap of the durations. And I have to speak to the edges but I have to feel shared edges. I can't go to just an edge that only one or two of you feel.

[36:29]

So there's no present. But there's this duration. Okay. Now, coming back to what you said. Now we've generated, developed a mindfulness rooted in the body, inside and out, and in the breath, and rooted in our activity, and rooted in appearance as disappearance, now that developed attention through this first foundation, first frame of reference, first target,

[37:36]

is then brought to feeling non-graspable feeling and to enter into the midst of feelings so if you feel fear Flight or fight is not an alternative. You stay in the fear. And really get to know the fear. Then you bring that to the contents of mind. And the contents of mind are the phenomenal world. So sometimes the fourth is called dharmas. Because at this point you know the contents of mind as dharmas.

[38:53]

And in English this is implied in the word phenomena. Phenomena is the plural of phenomenon. And phenomenon means something known by the senses. But in English it's just come to mean the external world. Okay, that's sort of an answer. Is that an answer? Okay, I think we're supposed to stop or ought to stop soon. So let me just bring up a question. Is attention part of consciousness? Is attention... Okay, our consciousnesses are now quite mixed.

[40:04]

I can only think and say certain things which somehow are part of this consciousness, mutual consciousness. But this mutual consciousness... Which I have a particular separate experience of. Extends right up to this wall. And into the cupboard. And out to the garden. Yeah, and it goes over the bumps of each of you. And to some extent goes inside each of you. And some of you interfere with that and some of you welcome it. So that's, you could say, one description of consciousness.

[41:14]

That's not attention. I have that feeling whether I give attention to Angela or not. Now, within this field of attention, this field of consciousness, is it a condensation of consciousness which somehow Something is directing toward you. Now that's a metaphor. And metaphors go beyond words. I couldn't really say that in words, but I can use a metaphor. But metaphors... Am I talking as fast as you're talking? Oh, shucks. LAUGHTER Feedback.

[42:16]

But metaphors like intuitions are extremely convincing. We tend to believe them because they kind of take a whole lot of information and put it together. Yeah, that seems to make sense. But we have to be wary about metaphor. Just because they're so convincing. Maybe the ball of attention isn't part of consciousness at all. Maybe it's not a stream within consciousness. It can look like that, but maybe it's not. I'm going to get a bill later. Can I get a bit of solemn? Okay. So, I bring attention to falling asleep. This is as interesting as doing zazen.

[43:27]

Sometimes it's easier. Okay. So, when I bring attention to, when tension is brought to going to sleep, I can, you know, if I say, And it's true when I bring attention to going to sleep. But it's not the only truth. If we think that instead of saying I breathe, we say here is breathing. It's clear that I am breathing, but also here is breathing is actually wider and more subtle. So the conditions of being in bed of being maybe sleepy and a lot of other factors are bringing attention to going to sleep.

[44:27]

Which aren't part of usual consciousness. But I'm still bringing attention to them. Ah, is that consciousness or is that attention separate from consciousness? And then I feel a little shudder in my body. And a certain kind of relaxation occurs. And breathing becomes involuntary. As I often say, you can always tell when a kid is pretending to sleep because their breathing isn't involuntary. And it's very, very hard to fake involuntary breathing.

[45:29]

Voluntary, involuntary thinking. I mean, voluntary, involuntary breathing is hard to do. One of the important stages in Zen practice is when your breathing becomes involuntary. Breathing can breathe itself. First you breathe unconsciously. then you bring attention to your breathing while you're learning to do zazen they generate a mind that has qualities of non-dreaming deep sleep and dreaming sleep so now you're falling asleep non-conscious images have appeared

[46:30]

non-conscious images. And there's this little shudder as the body stops holding itself. And you slip through the eye of the needle into sleep. Sometimes along with a camel and a sheep. You slip through this little needle and then you're in the context of lucid dreaming. We can't call this consciousness anymore. But Lucid dreaming is that the ball of attention is still there. So is the ball of attention both a stream within consciousness and something separate, like the particle wave theory and all that stuff?

[47:56]

The whole foundation of mindfulness is asking us questions like this. Is attention part of consciousness? What is attention? Now these are questions our culture just doesn't ask. Yeah. Because we think it's all created instead of that we're creating it. Yeah, when you start knowing you're in the process of creating it, different questions arise. Okay. Goodness sakes, I was really talking that fast. You were really talking that fast.

[48:57]

I always want you to go at my speed. Could that be my speed? Once it takes two to tempo. There's a phrase in English, it takes two to tango. Okay. We should only have this castle seminar one day, but gee, I'm just warming up. Okay. So let's listen to the bell at least. Can you feel listening to appearances fading away?

[50:10]

If you get the feel of it on a bell... You may get the feel of it looking at a room lit by candlelight. The objects are wrapped in the candlelight. Mm-hmm. It almost feels like if the candle goes out, they'll disappear. We don't feel that with the electric light. Isn't it interesting, whenever we do altars and romantic, get a feel for it, candlelight, bell. And bring it to mountains and rivers.

[51:16]

And the world of our friends. Do you know that after the sound of a bell is completely finished, your ears will still hear the bell?

[52:21]

Your ears will continue to reproduce the sound for a little while. We gather again tomorrow at 9.30.

[53:24]

Today? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.

[53:47]

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