Because of my brothers and friends, because of my sisters and friends, please let me ask, please let me say, peace to you. Because of my brothers and friends Because of my sisters and friends Please let me ask, please let me say Peace to you This is the house, the house of the Lord I wish the best for you This is the house, the house of the Lord I wish the best for you

[01:09]

Because of my brothers and friends, because of my sisters and friends, please let me ask, please let me say, peace to you. Because of my brothers and friends Because of my sisters and friends Please let me ask, please let me say Peace to you This is the house, the house of the Lord I wish the best for you This is the house, the house of the Lord I wish the best for you

[02:22]

Because of my brothers and friends, because of my sisters and friends, please let me ask, please let me say, peace to you. Because of my brothers and friends, because of my sisters and friends, please let me ask, please let me say, peace to you. Bonjour.

[03:28]

Y a-t-il des personnes qui auraient besoin d'une traduction française? Non. So, more time to sing together. And to dance, remember. Good morning. I hope you slept well on the first night. The weather today is very mystical for the first day. But the weather report is it's today like this.

[04:30]

And the rest of the week is according to the weather reports, sunny and warm. But we know how it is with weather reports. Well, since everybody's here, you probably know who these gentlemen are. But let me introduce Rabbi David Zeller here and . And we have to start this morning. Well, I told you last night we already made a schedule. If we could just start with a few moments of silence. And then out of the silence I will read a poem by the Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi.

[05:35]

And out of the silence I will read a poem by the Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi. which I find is always a lovely way to begin. And then afterwards, I'll just draw our attention to a couple of things about the poem. So we'll have some silence. Notice how each particle moves. Notice how everyone has just arrived here from a journey. Notice how each wants a different food. Notice how the stars vanish as the sun comes up.

[06:42]

and how all streams stream toward the ocean. Look at the chefs preparing special plates for everyone according to what they need. Look at this cup that can hold the ocean. Look at those who see the face. Look through Shams's eyes into the water that is entirely jewels. Beachte, wie jedes Teil sich bewegt.

[07:45]

Beachte, wie jeder gerade angekommen ist von einer Reise. Beachte, wie jeder ein verschiedenes Essen möchte. Beachte, wie die Sterne verschwinden, wenn die Sonne hervorkommt. Und wie alle Ströme zum Meer strömen. Schaue die Küchenchefe an, wie sie verschiedene Gerichte herbereiten, für alle, entsprechend dem, was sie brauchen. Schau diese Tasse an, die den ganzen Ozean halten kann. Schau jene an, die das Gesicht sehen. Schau durch die Augen von Shams in die Wasser, die ganz und gar Juwelen sind. As we begin this morning, I'd like to just look at a couple of lines of the poem.

[08:48]

Notice how everyone has just arrived here on the journey. But each of us, as we came into the camp and as we came into the tent this morning, we bring with us our journey. And it's part of the richness that we have to share with each other. So Richard and David and myself will share something of our journey, and we hope you also share with us and with each other something of your journey. Notice how each wants a different food. That something has called each one of us here. And that calling, as Rumi describes it, is the seeking of a certain kind of food.

[10:09]

So as we begin, it may be helpful to take a moment and reflect upon what has called you here. What food are you seeking? The chefs preparing special plates.

[11:09]

For everyone. According to what they need. That our experience for each of us at the camp here will offer us something. Each of us will find our own dish. Die Erlebnisse hier im Camp wird jedem von uns etwas geben. Wir werden alle unser eigenes Gericht finden. And that dish or that sustenance, that nurturing may come from some of the teachings that have been offered in the course of the week. Und dieses Gericht, diese Nahrung kann sein, dass sie kommt von den Lehren, die diese Woche offeriert werden. It may come from a conversation with someone at the dinner table. Es kann aber auch kommen von dem Gespräch mit jemandem am Essen. It may come from a glance passing somebody on the path. It may come from the nature around us. It may come from struggling with the weather. But something is being prepared for each one of us.

[12:11]

Look at this cup that can hold the ocean. And that's a particularly Sufi image. The heart is very much associated with the cup that when it's empty has the accommodation to hold the whole ocean of reality. So as we make the journey this week, each of the traditions will address the themes of emptiness and the sense of fullness. And to be attentive to your own heart in the course of the week. What has it been filled with each day? And how do you find the emptiness so that more can be placed in it? Look at those who see the face.

[13:32]

Now this once again is a particularly Sufi orientation in this line. That there's a seeking to see the face of the divine. And the person who sees the face of the divine, that face is reflected in their face. So in one level of the practice or one level of the teaching, we're the mirror for that face of the divine. So there'll be moments when we look at each other's faces and we'll see mirrored in those faces the face of the divine. But then there is a deeper level of the practice which is beyond the mirror. That at certain moments and in certain conditions our face is the face of the Divine. Not just a mirror. And the reality is in terms of this teaching is that we are all expressions on that one face.

[15:17]

So part of the practice that this poem offers us for the camp is to look at the different expressions on the one face of the divine. That can be an ongoing practice. Eine Übung, die uns dieses Gedicht gibt, ist, dass wir alle Gesichter anschauen als Ausdruck des einen göttlichen Gesichts. Und wenn wir das machen als Übung, die immer fortdauert, hilft es auch, eine Gemeinschaft aufzubauen. So the Sufis suchen diesen Blickkontakt, diese Gnade, das Gesicht sehen zu dürfen. And then the last line, look through Shams' eyes into the water that is entirely jewels. And in the context of the poem, the word water is capitalized.

[16:25]

And in that sense it may represent that all of life is the water And what we see in the ocean of life, what we see in the water of life, depends upon our perspective, depends upon the eyes through which we see it. And each of the traditions offered in the course of the week will offer us ways to look To look and to notice is how each line of the poem begins, to either to notice or to look. So that is an ongoing practice also that we can take into the camp. to continually notice, to continually look.

[17:30]

And sometimes life itself may reveal the jewels within it. And for the Sufis, that's represented in a very key phrase, that which transpires behind that which appears. Now, I'm beginning this morning because this camp comes out of a body of teaching and comes out of a tradition. So this morning I'd like to welcome you on behalf of that tradition and to offer something about it as an orientation. We could say that the camp is a kind of living expression of the reality of the teachings.

[18:30]

The source of inspiration for this camp really comes in the teachings of a man named Hazrat Inayat Khan, who was a Sufi who came to the western part of the world from India around 1910. He was one of the first Sufi teachers to come from the east into the west. Er war einer der ersten Sufi-Lehrer, die vom Osten in den Westen kamen. And really he came because as his teacher lay dying, that was one of the last things that he said to him, to bring the message, the music of Sufism to the West. Und sein Lehrer, als er starb, war etwas vom Letzten, was er gesagt hat überhaupt, dass er in den Westen kommen solle, um die Musik des Sufismus hier hinzubringen. And he followed the guidance of his teacher.

[19:49]

And like all of us, he evolved and he changed in his journey. And originally when he came to the West, a lot of his earlier teaching is very much based upon bringing his experience of Sufism as he knew it and experienced it in India, bringing it to the West. So he sought to bring an esoteric tradition from the East to West. But part of the alchemy of his own life was as he journeyed through Europe and through America, he began to sense something very deeply emerging in the consciousness of humanity. And that really became the passion of the latter part of his life. And one finds in his later teachings he speaks less particularly of Sufism or more of something that he called the message.

[21:13]

And so I'd like to share a little bit about how he perceived what he called the message. First of all, as he journeyed, he felt that the world was in a state of a nervous breakdown. Now remember, this is 1910, and if we look at what has happened in our century, two world wars, the Holocaust, And he felt that humanity was profoundly lost. It had lost a vision of what it meant to be a human being. It had lost a sense of orientation and purpose. And out of this lost humanity there was arising a tremendous cry.

[22:14]

should we say, out of the depth of the human heart in its lostness, that cry emerged in many different ways. And what he called the message was the response that he felt was emerging in humanity, in life itself, to that very deep cry. And for him, and remember this is 1910, 1914, quite some time ago, the world was quite different then. But what he felt was emerging was a new stage in the development of human consciousness. And he also referred to that as what he called the emergence of planetary consciousness.

[23:33]

The only way for the world to go forward out of this lost place was for a greater consciousness to emerge. And he felt that there were some cornerstones of that emerging consciousness. That what would happen is that more there would be an awakening of the consciousness of the planet to its wholeness. And that that awareness would begin to develop in individuals. So, rather than a consciousness simply focused in just our individual ego or into a group consciousness such as nationality or tribal consciousness, there would be a greater consciousness that would emerge.

[24:43]

And he spoke of that new consciousness would usher in a whole new way for human experience and human life. And that that consciousness would enter into all areas of life and redefine human experience. So one way to explain it would be the capacity of a human being to live their life with the greater and greater awareness of how the individual life fits into the wholeness of the planet. And one of the metaphors that he used is he said it's like if you think of the planet as one body, It's as if the different organs in the body are beginning to awaken and to recognize that they are part of a whole system.

[26:04]

And that each organ has its function, but it can sense it in its relationship to the whole. And that that is what would begin to awaken for human beings to find their place within the consciousness of the planet and their purpose. And he felt that in order for that to happen, there would emerge a spirituality that would be built upon the tremendous sense of respect for the divinity in each human soul. And that for a world to survive, it would have to be built upon that basis of respecting the divinity in each human soul.

[27:14]

So one is the practice of that which he called the religion of the heart, the respecting of the divine in each person. But the other, of course, is for individuals to realize that divine within them. And at least for him, he felt the answer to the condition of the world was self-realization, for people to begin to realize what it truly means to be a human being. And he spoke a great deal about the privilege of being a human being.

[28:15]

That we have been profoundly gifted to carry the kind of consciousness that the human being is capable of carrying. And he expressed that in the sense that the human soul has the capacity to expand into the consciousness of God. And he also spoke of two central themes that he felt would emerge. One he called spiritual liberty and the other he called spiritual democracy. He spoke about two essential themes, spiritual freedom and spiritual democracy. By spiritual democracy, he said, it would be built upon a sense of the divine in each person. Not that some people have the capacity to express or to experience that divine and that others don't. But also he was very concerned that there not be An inseparable bridge between humanity and God.

[29:35]

And that's why he spoke very deeply about the divine in each soul or the God within. And the awakening to that state of consciousness that we call God. Or the divine. And he also felt that part of that emerging global consciousness would have to do with the meeting and the integration of the East and West. And he also felt a very deep split that had occurred in humanity that needed reintegration was the split between our intellectual capacity and our devotional capacity.

[30:36]

The intellectual and the devotional. And that those would have to be reintegrated. So that the devotional, both pieces would need to be met in us in terms of our spiritual journey and in terms of the journey in humanity rather than the polarity of that or the separating out of that. And so it's out of that kind of context of what he felt was emerging in humanity that this camp in its small way seeks to offer some contribution. And one of the hallmarks that he felt would emerge would be the coming together of different religions.

[31:39]

Und etwas vom Wichtigen, was er erwähnt, ist das Zusammenkommen verschiedener Religionen. Because a religion would have to then look at itself within the global context. Rather than simply in its own isolated context. And he used, I think, a key word that has framed his work, which was to honor both the unity and the diversity of the religions of the world. That there is diversity, and we'll hear that and experience that in the course of this week. And that diversity is part of the great richness of the human experience. And it deserves deep appreciation. And that there is some place of unity, some place of meeting. And by that I don't mean everything is kind of into one big soup.

[32:53]

That unity may arise in how we meet. More than what we say. In his way of defining that place of unity was that the essence of religion is wisdom. And wisdom may have many different expressions and many different things to share. He also offered, or a prayer came to him, which you'll hear in the course of the camp, so I'd just like to explain the prayer, offer it and explain something of it. In the Sufi order, we call it the invocation. And the first phrase is toward the one.

[34:08]

And that really is one of the central practices of this tradition, the sense of seeking to find the oneness. That there is one reality. It may have many, many different dimensions and many different life forms in it. That there is one consciousness. So that sense of toward the one of moving out of the place of separateness and alienation into a realization of the oneness of life.

[35:10]

And then, as a way of articulating what's at the depth of that oneness, he said, toward the one, the perfection of love, harmony and beauty. Now, he also spoke of those three words, love, harmony and beauty, and at least for him gave some sense of what they mean. He spoke of the perfection of love is harmony. And the perfection of harmony is beauty. And at least in terms of some of the commentaries he's offered on the prayers, it was a very deep feeling in him that those qualities were particularly significant, particularly needed in our time.

[36:21]

So we have toward the one, the perfection of love, harmony and beauty. And the next phrase is the only being. And that there are many beings, but there is one being. And That also has, we'll see in the course of the presentations that I offer, within Sufism the name of that only being is called the beloved. So the only being, and that's the first half of the invocation, that in a sense moves in a certain internal direction as a practice. And then we find the other direction of the practice in the second half.

[37:33]

And the second half begins with the phrase united with all the illuminated souls. And this has to do for the person saying the prayer a sense of having centered or sought to center oneself in that only being, then to feel the sense of union, the sense of united. And with all the illuminated souls has to do with the community of beings who have brought or held light for humanity. Whether that's the chain of Bodhisattvas or the hidden saints in Judaism or the prophets in Islam or the mystical body of Christ, it's that sense of the different streams that have helped to bring

[38:49]

illumination to humanity. So we have united with all the illuminated souls. It's the sense of feeling a part of that community. We find ourselves united with this community. And then the next phrase, the illuminated souls who form the embodiment. Can you say it in German? Fine. Now, from the perspective of his teaching, guidance is inherent in all of life. And that guidance is called the spirit of guidance.

[40:08]

That the spirit of guidance exists in each individual. It exists in the unfoldment of humanity, in the unfoldment of the universe. And the various beings, illuminated souls that have existed in the history of the world and exist today, help to embody, help to articulate that in a teaching, in practices that we can follow. So they give it a body. They give it a form. that we then through that have access to. Or in the creation of community and how community lives.

[41:10]

So it's a deeply important aspect, the embodiment of guidance. Now, it says, all the illuminated souls who formed the embodiment of the Master, the Spirit of Guidance. There are some people who have felt that the word Master places a masculine identity on the Spirit of Guidance. So for some people, they have dropped the phrase Master and simply say, who formed the embodiment of the Spirit of Guidance. So the word Master could be interpreted as male, and that is why it is sometimes omitted. So that phrase, and I'll just repeat the whole phrase, really contains the essence of the teachings out of which this camp comes. Toward the one, the perfection of love, harmony and beauty,

[42:15]

the only being, united with all the illuminated souls, who form the embodiment of the Master, the spirit of guidance. And I'd also in ending like to express my appreciation to Pir Vilayet who has founded this camp some 30 years ago. And His father, Hazrat Nayak Khan, spoke of really the purpose of the Sufi order is to simply create a vehicle through which the stream of what he called the message or the stream of this new awakening can find a way into the world.

[43:33]

It isn't the only place that holds the stream. There are many. But it's one of the ones that's helping to bring that into the world. And he said it should not be the intention of the Sufi order to create a new religion or to try to collect people into itself, but to simply be a vehicle to offer in whatever way it can this sense of what he felt was awakening in our time. Now, when his father... One of the last things that his father said to Pirvelayat is if you ever go to India, the place to go is where the rivers come together.

[44:41]

That's the holiest place. So in a way what we can see this week as is a place where some rivers come together, the rivers of the three traditions represented here. So diese Woche können wir anschauen als einen Ort, wo drei Flüsse zusammenkommen, diese drei Religionen, welche hier vertreten sind. And that's really what the camp is an attempt to do, particularly this week, is to create a place where the rivers can come together and we get to drink from those different rivers. Und was wir diese Woche vor allen Dingen machen möchten, ist diesen Treffpunkt der drei Flüsse leben hier und aus den verschiedenen Wassern trinken. So the final piece I would just like to offer before we take a break and then Richard will do the rest of the morning, is Hasid and I spoke of, well, I'll offer it in a practice.

[45:48]

The first part of the practice, you just bring your head down to your heart. I'm of course very happy to be here. With Ulrike to translate and teach me. And to be here again with Atum. And to get to know Rabbi David, who turns out to be married to somebody I know quite well. You wouldn't know what we've been through. And I love it when Atum starts out with a poem from Rumi.

[47:15]

Because if any poet speaks to almost everybody of a religious inclination, it's Rumi. I can't resist saying when I first met him, we were roommates, and I looked at him and I said, roomie. And he said, oh, you're my roomie too. And I said, well, I'm a Zen Buddhist anyway. I'm aspiring to what Rumi represents.

[48:27]

And as some of you may have noticed, I have a bad cold. And I don't think I've had a cold for 10 or 20 years. So getting a cold is an improvement. Because usually I get the flu. And it's deepened my voice too, you know. Ah. Now, I'm afraid that Zen practice is very practical. Yeah, it certainly starts out that way. So I'll start out that way with you, with us.

[49:30]

Can you hear me in the back okay? Yeah. Now, Buddhism is not the truth. In the sense that it's not the truth that makes you free. It's the power to discover the truth for yourself that makes us free. So Zen is a way to, a path to answer basic questions for yourself. In this sense, it fits in quite well with other practices and teachings. I think the practices and teachings can be used and modified quite freely by anyone.

[50:50]

We could say that Zen is a kind of common sense. And also a kind of sense common to all the senses. Which is the old meaning of the word. Meaning of common sense in English. Now in its views, Buddhism may, if it does differ with other teachings, it's in its views. But I think still these are views and you can work with them as you wish. But the practices themselves are kind of, again, common sense. Now since I will like to, the periods when I have to do something, I would like to at least occasionally sit for short periods.

[52:20]

And so let me say that the Just very briefly, the main posture of zazen is a lifting feeling through your back. The main posture of zazen is, in fact, your back. And you can think of your backbone as a kind of mind. So whether you're sitting in a chair or however, if you want to get the feeling of Zen posture, it's a lifting feeling through the back and up through the back of the neck. If you get used to it, it actually lengthens the spine a little bit.

[53:38]

So if you're feeling short, this is a good practice for you. And you feel like you're being lifted from here. This is also considered a kind of heaven-earth axis. And then there's a relaxed feeling coming down through your body simultaneously. And then if you can fold your legs, it's good. It makes your posture more stable. It folds your heat, your warmth together. Ulrike yesterday, or the day before, discovered she could sit in full lotus for the first time. And I took some photographs of her, you know.

[55:07]

And she said, isn't it the job of the... I only sit half lotus, you know. And she said, isn't it the job of the disciple to surpass the teacher? So I bowed and took some more pictures. So... Yeah. Well, that's enough for the posture. Now, I'd like to build a little bit of vocabulary here. Zen is essentially, Buddhism is essentially a yogic practice. Zen and Buddhism is essentially a yogic practice. Taking from India yoga all those teachings which support a view in which there is nothing outside this.

[56:09]

And in this way, views from Indian yoga were taken, which essentially reinforce that there is nothing outside our immediate situation. So Buddhism especially emphasizes mental postures as well as physical postures. Because it's my habit, I will use the word Buddhism without knowing I'm using it. But I'm really, for the most part, going to try to speak about Zen practices which are dependent on Buddhism. So this practice that Zahir gave us just a little while ago of putting your head down and listening to the cries and calling of the world.

[57:28]

I don't mean to sound too analytical, but we would call this bringing a mental and physical posture together. Is the feeling of listening to the cries of the world is a mental posture? And to join it to putting your head down towards your heart is a physical posture. And that leads to the possibility of feeling the mental posture and developing it through a physical movement. Now this is This basic idea is essential to Buddhist practice.

[58:43]

Because one of the yogic truisms of Zen is that all mental phenomena has a physical component. And all sentient physical phenomena has a mental component. And it's always easier to work through the body to the mind than the mind to the body. The body is simply more accessible. Our mind is quite slippery to say nothing of tricky. Yeah. So we try to find a posture which allows us to discover a physical stillness.

[60:14]

It's really that simple. And so this posture is considered the posture Well, full lotus is better, but this posture is considered a posture which allows you to discover physical stillness. You don't need to use your muscles to support yourself for the most part. You can kind of let go. And if you learn to sit still for a specific period of time, whether you want to or not, 20 minutes or 30 minutes or something, it actually gives you an enormous psychological strength. Because if you know you don't have to move, no matter what you're thinking or feeling, if you know you don't have to act, you're free not to act on what you think or feel,

[61:32]

It gives you an openness to think and feel what you might not otherwise. Our emotions are rooted in caring. Unsere Emotionen sind letztendlich in Fürsorge verwurzelt. Even if you're angry, it's because you care. Und selbst wenn ihr ärgerlich seid, dann deshalb, weil ihr irgendwo euch etwas wichtig ist. But when emotions are in the service of the self, they can be very defensive and protective and so forth. So when you can free your emotions and put them in service of maybe we could say the big self, you discover really the pure root of caring and in all of your feelings.

[63:03]

And that again becomes part of your thinking and acting. So as you get so that you can sit still, by contrast, you can see the activity of the mind. And you can begin to observe the activity of the mind. And you don't want to interfere with this activity through your self-identity. Because then you don't find out. You only find out what you'll let yourself know. Now remember, what we're trying to do here is come to a way to...

[64:05]

to answer fundamental questions through our own power. And also to open ourselves to the flow of connectedness. But generally and practically speaking, we function through a self. And just let me say, a self is essential. And its functions are to establish separateness. And your immune system, which mine isn't working too well today, is a form of self and it determines what belongs to you and what belongs to others.

[65:41]

So if you want to practice with discovering the self instead of thinking it as an entity, think of it as functions. Notice how you're establishing separation. Let me give you a simple example. Now here I'm speaking about the Eightfold Path. begins with right views. Because the basic Buddhist view is that all your perceptual and mental activity is influenced by views at the basis of consciousness.

[66:43]

At the basis of consciousness. So let me give you an example of when I recently had to work with my views. I was staying at a friend's apartment in New York. A quite wonderful apartment built on the top of an old kind of funky office building. In a kind of funky neighborhood. But it's a two-story penthouse. And it looks out on the Empire State Building, it looks like a mountain. There you go. You might remember Kamala, who was the dancer, Indian dancer.

[67:54]

Anyway, it's her and her husband's apartment. Yeah, you don't have to explain. Whatever. Anyway, so I stay there when I'm in New York quite often. And they have a shower. They put me in this upstairs room. And they have a shower, kind of funky shower. But it has a window with an Empire State Building framed in it. Now the problem with taking a shower there is not the distraction of this building, but that the shower handles work the opposite of any shower handles I've ever known. They turn in to go on and out to go off.

[69:08]

And the other one the same except it goes the opposite direction. Yes. And I find myself gazing at the Empire State Building getting scalded or frozen. And I've taken many showers over quite a few years, and I can never get it straight. So finally I thought, I have to correct my views. So I figured out that the left one was left, left, off, off.

[70:15]

The right one went right, right, and that turned it off. So in the middle, like a little mantra, I'd say, right, right, left, left, off, off. And after a while I got so I could not get burned or frozen. Now I wasn't born knowing that faucets usually turn out on. This is a view I've learned and embodied. And it's simply in my body. And the only way I can do something about it is to create a mental view and counteract it regularly. So after several years of not surviving that shower, I now know how to do it.

[71:27]

So much of Buddhism is like this. You're actually saying something like right, right, left, left, off, off. To counteract views that you've embodied which are delusionary. And like when I'm in the shower, I'm not conscious that my body has this view of the way faucets work. These views are off-scene. You live them, but you don't notice them. But when you look at your life closely and see that you're not functioning sometimes, When you look carefully, it's often an inoperable view that you're holding non-consciously.

[72:50]

Now if you start to practice with the ways in which you feel separated, or notice that you make yourself feel separated, And then also try to notice ways in which you feel connected. And mostly I think for us it's a kind of politeness or hope or wish, but we often don't really feel connected. So I would like to give you a view to work with. If I close my eyes and I open them up and I think, what is your name? Karin. I think this person over there named Karin is separated from me by space.

[74:32]

Now, if I think that, before I even open my eyes, I assume we're already separated. Bevor ich meine Augen öffne, nehme ich dann bereits an, dass wir getrennt sind. Dann wird jede Information, die durch die Sinnesorgane hereinkommt, bestätigen, dass wir getrennt sind. Und unsere Sprache verstärkt das auch mit Wörtern wie dort oder hier. But now if I instead have the view already connected, and when I open my eyes and I look at Karin, and I think already connected, already I start smiling and you look really great.

[75:47]

And all the information from my senses is going to tell me, reinforce the idea that there's a connection. So if I look at all of you and feel already connected, I'm in a very different world than if I just have the view when I look at you. You're out there and I'm here and I have to say something, oh gosh. I know from experience, if I can speak from the feeling, the basic assumption that there's already connection, I speak differently. So this is an example of how views are understood in Buddhism. Das ist ein Beispiel, wie man Sichtweisen im Buddhismus begreift.

[76:55]

Und wie man mit diesen Sichtweisen arbeiten kann, um ein Bewusstsein aufzubauen, das also akkurate Annahmen trifft. Dass man ein Bewusstsein entwickelt, dessen grundlegende Annahmen einfach akkurat sind in Bezug dessen, wie die Welt wirklich ist. No, we have the problem of how does the eye see the eye. You are yourself. How does the eye both is fine. You know that. Okay. Okay. So it's pretty hard for the eye to see the eye. So we have to devise a way that allows us to study ourselves when we are ourself.

[77:56]

And the first step is to be able to see the activity of the mind through the stillness of the body and then learn not to interfere with the activity. You're not trying to do anything with it. And when you learn to observe without interfering, you've actually made your mind more subtle. Und wenn ihr gelernt habt zu beobachten, ohne dabei zu stören, dann macht ihr euren Geist viel feiner. Denn wenn ihr euch störend einmischt, dann seht ihr den natürlich nicht wirklich. Und so ist dieser Prozess letztendlich eine Verfeinerung des Geistes. So again, the first step is to discover, to observe without interfering the activity of the mind.

[79:21]

And then in the midst of seeing the activity of the mind, to see the stillness of the mind itself as well as its activity. And now, as you begin to not only observe the stillness of the mind, the space between thoughts, the space around thoughts, but you can actually feel the space between thoughts. When kids, you know, you play with kids and you do this little piggy went to market, you know, this little piggy went to, etc.

[80:24]

Or you count the fingers or something. I always have the kids, first we count the fingers. And then I ask them to count the spaces. So they count one, two, three, four. And I say, how come there's less spaces than fingers? And then they say, oh no, there's six and there's, I mean, five and six. And then, well, where does it end? So... Space allows my hand to appear. And we are so constructed that we need our senses are so constructed to give us a three-dimensional experience. perception of reality.

[81:33]

So if I throw this to you, you can catch it. But we don't just exist simply in three dimensions. So at first, if you can begin to feel the space of things as well as the thingness, you actually have to retrain yourself. Because this isn't the ignorance of acculturation. Ignorance of acculturation.

[82:40]

The word just wouldn't come out. I don't know what happened. I have that problem a lot. But I depend on you to improve what I say. But the ignorance of the senses in a genetic sense or the job of the senses is to notice the hand. But that does make us ignorant of this. And I think you have to consciously retrain yourself to notice the space between The space around and the space that penetrates. We know from science that this is less than 1% stuff, most of it space. So I'm not telling you something crazy.

[83:52]

So when you begin to be able to feel the stillness of the mind, you can then begin to observe the activity of the senses. then you can begin to work with each sense separately and together and break the homogenization of the senses under, for us, eye consciousness. Now let me give you one little example. And then I'd like us to sit for a few minutes. If I hold this up and you look at it, and you just get enough information to say, oh, that's a belt. What you've done is you've shifted from a sensory object to a concept.

[85:14]

And we are in a way trained to very quickly get just enough information to identify something. I wish I had an orange or an apple here. Because then it's clear that there's a texture, smell, various colors, etc., When you turn an apple into a concept apple, or a person into Karin, if I hold back naming, I activate the whole way my senses know the world. Which is rooted in the immediate situation. And so is nourished by the immediate situation. So here you begin not only to retrain your views, but to retrain your senses.

[86:51]

Already your senses are only giving you a three-dimensional picture. And then when you use your senses to only produce a concept, basically you've collapsed your state of mind. You have a field of mind which has a tremendous energy and inner penetrative quality to it. And you collapse that energy into a concept. You actually put all that energy into the concept. And then you have to have special techniques to deal with all this energy tied up in concept. You have to do all kinds of psychological work and stuff because all of this is tied up in concept. So in this sense we can say Buddhism or Zen is a mind-ology.

[87:54]

The study of how the mind works, how we work, how we function mentally and physically. And if you notice this and you feel it, it's not that you don't use concepts or names, but you get so... Touched by the mind rooted in the immediate situation. The mind opens like rooted in the senses, like a flower. So that is so satisfying compared to conceptual thinking that more and more you only do conceptual thinking when it's necessary. And you don't try to discover who you are only through conceptual thinking.

[89:27]

So that's a small example or a big example of the practicality of Zen. So it's almost time for us to end. If you would be willing, why don't we sit for a few minutes? It's been very pleasant to be here with you this morning. And I hope my voice is a little less deep tomorrow. Now my custom is to hit the bell three times to begin and once to end. Meine Gepflogenheit ist, die Glocke dreimal klingen zu lassen am Anfang und einmal am Ende. You just accept your posture as it is.

[91:17]

You're in a kind of dialogue with an ideal posture. But you accept your posture as it actually is. See if you can relax inside. At least not try to do anything. Just see what's present. Value, one way or the other. We call this the practice of the uncorrected state of the mind.

[92:21]

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