Somehow this seems awfully short. Maybe it's because of what I'd like to find a way to say. At the same time, so many of us have been practicing together, meeting like this for so long, that there's an immense amount of shared time among us. So maybe I have to speak to that large amount of shared time which somehow fits into a two-day seminar. And there's an underlying unity, or at least connectedness, relationship in what I'm saying.

[01:05]

But I can't always make that underlying unity clear. I'd like to, and maybe tomorrow I can. And sometimes I'm discovering the underlying unity because I can feel it in the different examples. And maybe you can feel it too. I think you can. And it somehow is not so dissimilar from the time we've shared over time in practicing together. So now I need to speak to what we can speak about together in the small groups. Yes, together in German. So I think the two things that I'd like to sort of emphasize just now are the ideas of minds and noticing mind and minds.

[02:34]

Because if you can't notice mind, you can't develop what we call Zen mind. But noticing mind is also noticing how mind functions. And how mind functions is through particularities. sensorial objects and so forth. So we have the kind of explicit topic of mind and minds. and minds with explicit talking.

[03:37]

Your mind, your minds, and the mind you share with others, and some kind of mutual mind, and some mind you share with me and Neil. Because if we're not sharing some kind of mind, what I'm saying won't make any sense. So if I'm speaking about... activity the activity which is everything changing on which mind appears through which mind appears then we're talking about mind and minds and the topography

[04:46]

of the world. The topography of phenomena. Because if there isn't a topography to phenomena, I don't know what word to use, topography, I'm using... If there isn't a topography to phenomena, then you can't notice mind. If there is a potential topography to mind, it's both in how we sense and cognize the world. Everything we know is a sensorial event. or a mental event, or both.

[06:02]

You can't have a mental event without it being a sensorial event. But you can't have a sensorial event without it also being a mental event. But you can have a sensorial event, which is not a discursive mental event. No, that's crystal clear. Isn't it crystal pretty clear? Isn't it pretty crystal clear? clouds fall over them. I think it's clear. What else could it be? But to notice it is important because it means you're inseparable from the world.

[07:05]

So you're What I said, I think, is just a simple fact. But the consequence of that fact is we're inseparable from the world that we live. It's not out there. It's in here. It's here. Okay, now let's then talk about the topography of phenomena. It is first of all, as I said, either sensorial, mental, or both. But it's also not just sensorial and mental, it's also how things actually exist.

[08:17]

And how things actually exist is a formula, kind of. formula in Buddhism, force meaning the things are unrepeatable, impermanent, unique at each moment, and so forth. Okay. Okay. Now, to notice that things have an impermanent particularity moment after moment. is to practice the dharma. And we can talk about it then as a kind of dharmic topography of phenomena.

[09:22]

I've never said it that way before. It sounds good. Dharmic topography of phenomena. Okay. Now, a genuine person or a true person or a wise person in Chinese Confucian and Buddhist thinking... Taoist Confucian China? Taoist and Buddhist. Taoist and Buddhist, yes. Is a person who has what we call adaptive wisdom. And here I'm continuing sort of finishing

[10:22]

the cartoon I started. Wisdom in a yogic context is not accumulated knowledge. but an ability to, well, I called it adaptive wisdom. There are two aspects of such a person as wise person in yogic culture. One is they are not concerned by the failure of others to recognize their merits. They're not disturbed by the failure of others to recognize their merits.

[11:33]

And that is understood to be possible through what they would call... They're not disturbed or concerned by others' failure to recognize their merits. Their own merits. Their own merits. I am not concerned whether you recognize my merits or not. Not about other people's.

[12:35]

It could be understood in English either way, I'm sorry. That's my mistake. No, that's my mistake. I didn't make it clear. Thank you, Achmar. You're welcome. I would be very disturbed if I didn't recognize your merits. I wouldn't be here in fact. Okay. Now, that's understood to be possible by a person if they have the heart and vitality for it. And now, what they mean by this is really that you, we could say, you have no other location. Your experience is so site and situation, so located in the site and the situation, Die Erfahrung ist so sehr in dem Ort und der Situation lokalisiert.

[13:58]

Deine Energie ist nicht in der Zukunft oder Vergangenheit oder in deiner Lebensgeschichte und so weiter. So wie Lenny und dieser Wanderfalke, es gibt keine andere Örtlichkeiten. Now, such a person who is able to be so located would be described as someone who then has adaptive wisdom. And what that means is that in each situation there's an assumed coherence. Each situation has a coherence and a discoherence.

[15:05]

So adaptive wisdom is to be able to find the coherence in each situation and then be renewed by it. So to behave wisely in this kind of understanding of a genuine person, you can so fully engage in each situation, that you can feel the potential coherence in each situation. And through finding the coherence in each situation, your own vitality is renewed. Sounds good, doesn't it? It's an ideal, but it's possible.

[16:16]

What do you mean by coherence? That things come together or can come together. They can cohere. Incoherence is when things don't fit together. If you say a person is very coherent, what they say makes sense. If they're incoherent, they're crazy. Negative words have a certain sound in German. Okay. Crystal clear? Crystal clear. Yeah?

[17:17]

No other location. Is this synonym with total presence? No other location that's synonymous with total presence? Yeah, but it's another way of saying it. If you say to be present, it sounds like you're focusing. If I say there's no other location, you don't even have to focus. There is no other location except this. It's a stronger way to say that you're only present in this situation. Sometimes I use the term situated immediacy. It's a zen embodiment. Now I'm bringing in the idea that mind is also an embodied mind. Mind and body are inseparable.

[18:30]

Mind and body are inseparable. But they can be experienced separately. And that experienced separateness can be woven together. Okay, is that crystal clear? Mind and body are inseparable but they can be experienced separately. And that experienced separateness can be joined. And there's many ways to join mind and body or weave mind and body together. Zen is a particular way. There are other ways.

[19:41]

By doing this practice, you're choosing a particular way to weave mind and body together. And the result is a particular modality of mind and body that's particular to Buddhism and Zen. So for the sake of creating a technical term, I call, I name the Zen modality of mind and body joined, somatic mind, for the sake of saying something. Now, somatic mind is not in Buddhism and in Zen, Somatic mind is not just a matter of joining mind and body.

[21:00]

The joined mind and body, the modality of mind and body joined in Zen, extends to the site, the location, and the situation. So mind and body joined through Zen practice Also joins mind and body with soul. with your location and your situation. So your sight and your situation become a region of potentialities, of thoughts, of feelings, moods. They become an area of moods, feelings, potentials, possibilities, thoughts.

[22:17]

And your actions are not just simply mental actions, they're implementable actions. I'm giving you all these small distinctions. It's great that you can do it. Because the situated immediacy means your primary and most of your attention is actuated in an attention actuated in the immediate situation. So you tend to think not about things that are impossible, thinking tends to be implementable. You get so that you...

[23:37]

you pretty much know what you think you can do. What you think you can also do. Because you're used to thinking in an implementable region of sight and situation. I think probably any really effective person, a businessman or athlete or medical doctor, a lawyer, is probably... most of the time thinks implementably. What they think is in the region of what they can do. möglich ist für sie zu tun.

[24:52]

Okay, then that in Buddhism means also to begin to articulate sight and situation through as a dharmic topography. Und das heißt im Buddhismus, dass dieses Ort und Situation auszudrücken als eine dharmische Situation. Now, I'll just give you one example that's been unfolded A number of people have told me over the years or recently that the practice of saying yes to things has been very helpful. Even in pedestrian things. Pedestrian, mundane things. I mean, we're in practice period, right?

[25:53]

We can test one of the practitioners. Let's go to the movies. Well, there's no movies at Crestone Mountain Center. And there's no movies in Crestone. And maybe there's a theater in Alamosa, but that's 100 kilometers away. So you say, let's go to the movies. And then the person immediately says, yes. Yeah, that's practice. And then you say, but we can't. But the first answer is yes. Okay, now... We can also use the word welcome. Whatever appears, the first thing is you say welcome to it.

[26:59]

You just get in the habit, welcome. And that's a way to trick yourself or enter yourself into acceptance. Your first reaction to whatever the situation, what else should it be but acceptance? What could it really be? in any useful way. Okay, and then In addition to acceptance, if we get more subtle about this, there's the experience of accepting and receiving. Receiving requires a little bit of a kind of space that you allow this receiving to occur.

[28:05]

And the next, I guess the only word I can find for it is attunement. You're able to find the song in each situation. Or the dissonance. Yeah, or the out-of-tuneness. Unstimmung. Unstimmigkeit. In melodischem Sinne. In melodischem Sinne, ja. Also nicht eingeschwungen sein, sagen wir mal. And that attunement, which is also considered a virtue of the genuine or wise person in yoga culture, you can find the attunement which allows you to know how to discover, to act within and be renewed by the assumed and discovered coherence.

[29:15]

That's too much. You can act within. This attunement, the assumed and discovered coherence and be renewed by that. Thank you. Okay, ready? What are you ready for? On the mark. Okay, get set. Isn't that enough? Okay. So what I'm speaking about again is, and for the small groups we should start, is to what extent can you notice your own mind?

[30:39]

And notice it through appearance, how things appear to the senses and to the mind. And to what extent, like using phrases like welcome or already connected, can we begin to articulate phenomena so that we can see mind functioning? bringing attention to the spine or to the breath is a way to articulate mind and body and phenomena.

[31:41]

Okay. Now there's a big part of what I've been talking about that I haven't made explicit now. But I'll certainly see if I can find the wings for it tomorrow. If you give me enough water to sink. Oh, thanks a lot. Why don't we sit for a moment? You can sit in any old posture. As long as your spine is full of breath. I mean, that's a buddy's knee. I do not anymore.

[32:41]

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