There's a word in Japanese that's spelled just like aware. A-W-A-R-E. I mentioned it before, but it's pronounced A-W-A-R-E. It means to live in the awareness that you're always causing suffering. No matter what you do. So I think what we learn to do, and what my daughter will learn to do, and we do have to learn to be excluded. We can't be included in everything. And in ages, prior to our sort of democratic age.

[01:10]

And the virtue, the primary social virtue was to accept your place. But I think we suppress all the things we can't achieve. And I think we suppress our connectedness to others. So we can ignore the fraud. Ignore much of what happens in the world. Yeah. Our whole populations are in extraordinary misery. Yeah, and we We ignore most of the suffering of the people around us.

[02:31]

We accept our lot, and we expect others to accept their lot. Yeah, we kind of ignore impermanence. Sophia will learn to ignore the fact she's going to die, mostly ignore it. Sophia will learn to ignore the fact that she is going to die, or mainly to ignore it. But somehow when you meditate, sometimes you can't suppress this anymore.

[03:33]

And it's when the Buddha was meditating that he felt this experience that life is so deeply rooted in suffering. And part of the suffering is the suppression of our mind. connectedness with others. So we have this problem. How do we express our connectedness with others? And at the same time, it's difficult to express it. Yeah. One way to express it is to practice the Eightfold Path. Does it do any good? I don't know if it does any good. But I think it's important, you know, the first, the four so-called noble truths,

[04:39]

that there is suffering. This is actually just a recognition. And that's not so easy to really recognize. Our life is based on accepting it, putting it aside, and so forth. How many losses there must be in this room? Losses we've mostly learned to accept. Yeah. So it's a recognition. And then the next noble truth is that there is a cause of suffering.

[05:56]

That's also a recognition. You have to take some time to say, okay, there's a cause. And that because there's a cause, there's an end. That's also something you just have to at some point recognize. There could be an end of suffering. It's possible, even if possible for only one person. To know that there is an end is also a cause of an ending.

[07:00]

And the fourth noble truth is the Eightfold Path. The path gets wider the more people who walk it, live it. Somebody ought to do it. If it's possible, we should make it clear it's possible. You can't force it on anyone else. You can only make it mostly the only way we can make it possible is to make it possible for ourselves. But the energy, the power, the motivation to do it is to make it possible for others through making it possible through ourselves. That's not different from love.

[08:17]

But it's to express our connectedness. Or down deep the inseparability we know. inseparableness of our life from others. And this is one of the few ways I know to express it. So, If you see it that way, then you try to realize, to follow this path.

[09:22]

Okay. Okay. So let's sit for a few moments. And then have a well-deserved break. Okay. Sorry to cause your legs suffering. Yeah. Thank you.

[10:56]

Our life can be miserable or joyful but really it can be both at the same time. Now I'd like you to after the break meet together and smaller groups. I suggest maybe what you could speak about. It's how this path, this eightfold path, can touch our life. Where can it come into our life? How much does it affect our life or affect our thinking?

[14:05]

Even only one of the paths may have some presence in our life. How does the path have, how can it, how does it have some presence in our life? So let's come back together in smaller groups at 4.30.

[15:17]

Thank you again for translating. You're welcome. You can't escape.

[16:39]

Come back. So, my voice returned. I lost my voice for a little while. I can feel it coming back now. So please, please tell me something about your discussion. She said it was going to be difficult, so I'll let her try to start.

[17:43]

She said it will be very difficult. I'll say it in German. We started with... Kavi said he had an idea about how he wanted to live without hurting anybody. For me, this way of living was more... was a kind of accidental. Accidental, not really accidental, but somehow it turned out that it fit... For you or for my academy? For you. This is how we entered and now Kavi please continue.

[18:54]

So this experience that we had or the decision we made to live like that didn't have to do anything with hateful path or Buddhism. Because at that time we mostly didn't know anything about it. And then we came to the point that we talked again about suffering and the example that you brought with the frog. And there was an important question in the group. Then we reached that point where we talked about suffering and We used your example with the frog and asked ourselves, you know, what is the attitude of Buddhism or the posture?

[20:32]

How to... how to bear the suffering or to end it, to help, to end it, or to kill the frog. So we looked at this question from various... looked at the various aspects of the question but didn't really have a result. So we would like to bring this into the group and because there were some opinions and people said you can only decide something like that within the situation.

[21:33]

There is no general way to decide it. We finished this then, and then another aspect was that the Eightfold Path somehow says you can end suffering. We talked about how we can end the suffering that we cause through our own actions.

[22:34]

And for this, tools such as mindfulness and concentration are necessary, so that we can see in the situation when this arises, or at all get a slowdown of the process in order to perceive when we start to cause suffering somewhere. And for that, tools like mindfulness or concentration are necessary to be able to notice and to slow down this process so that we can see how we cause suffering. Okay. We also talked about the difference between mindfulness and concentration.

[23:50]

Ach so, und dass dieses Beispiel selber zu versuchen, irgendwo kein Leiden zu verursachen, dass das für andere im Prinzip ein Vorbild, den Weg dann dadurch breiter macht. And also that trying to not cause suffering ourselves sets an example for other people and thus widens the path. Yeah. Okay. So, from somebody else? Noch jemand? I think our group can follow what you said, at least as far as the last two points are concerned. Using the example of the frog we had the question, will it be ever possible to get rid of suffering?

[25:18]

People will always, or people that are close to us will always die and there will always be accidents and you can't avoid these things. And in this connection the question came up that it is difficult to bear one's own powerlessness and helplessness to help other people.

[26:41]

And that it is necessary to endure this suffering or this helplessness and suffering and the contact but that it is necessary to bear this kind of helplessness and the suffering that arises from that, and to keep in touch or keep the contact with this other person. And a question that was asked in connection with this was, what is meant by this when it is said in the Four Noble Truths that suffering can be lifted up? And in that connection, the question arose, what does it mean when in the Four Noble Truths it is said that there is an end to suffering?

[27:56]

Okay. Yeah, someone else? Yes, Andreas. In our group we also talked about suffering. There was... In our group we also talked about suffering and the four noble truths and through the discussion came up that there are various levels of suffering. For example, personal suffering when I was, for example, I was treated badly as a child and afterwards I can look into that and change it. Yeah, and then maybe cultural suffering because my parents were Nazis and I'm part of this culture and so I'm close to that too.

[29:14]

For example, I saw the shooting of people in China. I was watching it on TV and it really hurt me. I suffered a lot, but I had no idea how to end it. Or that happened to me that I saw how people were shot in China, many people, and I had no idea how I could deal with and end this kind of suffering. We also talked about how to describe the way or the path. And there were people who found their own descriptions, like finding your balance or clarification. And then there was somebody in the group, for them it was really helpful, this example was really helpful with the 99 errors that missed the target and the one that hits.

[30:52]

Related to mindfulness practices, but also other practices, really the whole practice. Okay, thank you. Who's next? There's the next one. I would like to add one thing Before we entered the path, we all had already looked at our lives. And that through meditation, zazen, mindfulness, also in the therapeutical processes, new views develop that are really, really helpful.

[32:15]

Now, if you want to be compassionate, and Andreas is suffering, you'll free Andreas from always being next. So who's next? In the same group I found that Nico's last word was a good concept. In German it was a... a contemplative change of functioning in the brain.

[33:48]

He's waiting for a brain change. This was one of the last phrases in the discussion. I would like to hear more about concentration in meditation, how it appears here in the SD8 point. Are we supposed to eat at 6? Yeah. It's ready. Okay. So it'll be ready at 8 o'clock too? Well, we can... Yeah, please.

[35:01]

We can stop because we can start again tomorrow. Okay. That's funny. The Eightfold Path is, I mean, one of the I would say geniuses of this path, is that we trip over it. Tripped, like you'd trip over a rope or something? What I mean is that much of it is just common sense. And you find yourself as a person of integrity actually practicing this and you know nothing about Buddhism. And then you find yourself doing it, and then you...

[36:03]

When you see it also as this eightfold path, it opens up possibilities that you hadn't seen when it was just common sense. Yeah. A friend of mine wrote a poem I can't remember the whole poem, but he said, you know, I don't love my little finger. What he meant was... that he's so connected with his little finger that he can't love it or not love it. He's just connected with it.

[37:09]

I remember the case. I think he was talking about having his finger on a railroad track and seeing how much courage he had to pull it out at the last minute. But I use that just as a kind of primitive example perhaps of why I use the word connectedness rather than love. Because I feel that in some way we're so connected with each other that it's, I can't say it's love, it's something to me deeper than love. We sometimes express it as love.

[38:09]

Yeah, and I think it'll get very schmaltzy if I start talking about how much I love you. So I resist doing that. I'm culturally shy. But, you know, sometimes I love and sometimes I don't love, but I always feel connected. The person who wrote that poem actually was just, I don't know what I should tell you, but it was Huey Newton. who founded the Black Panthers. He was an extraordinary person and a very close friend of mine.

[39:09]

He learned to meditate in prison, in solitary confinement for years. He was certainly a tragic figure and caused much suffering. But he still had this funny insight about his finger. Anyway, without being schmaltzy, it's wonderful to be here with you. We'll continue in the form of a Sangha meeting tonight and continue in the form of a seminar tomorrow. Thank you very much. How are you?

[40:39]

I promised or said at least that we'd start this morning with continuing our discussion from the groups. So it's not necessary that Andreas be next. It is not necessary that Andreas is the next one. There is a lot of different things said here. I don't think I can put it together. In our group, many different things were said, and I think I can really give a summary.

[41:50]

But an important point was that we were talking about the subtlety of the connection. One important point was that we talked about connectedness or the feeling of being connected. We also talked about the frog. That frog is achieving immortality. We also talked about war and suffering of people throughout the world and their starving. Well, we didn't talk specifically about the eight points of the Eightfold Path.

[43:10]

Yeah. Okay, thank you. I hardly said hello to you. I've been in the same group. I have the feeling we always talk about the same thing. Every group? You mean every year or...? We talked about connectedness and separateness and we thought it always had to do with right speech.

[44:11]

That a lot gets transmitted through speaking, talking. That's all I have to say right now. So Andreas is now the next excuse. Okay. Okay. We talked a lot about mindfulness.

[45:40]

And then we reached that point where we came to notice that if our views always lie before our perceptions, How do we have a chance then to change them? Because we can't reach there consciously since they are lying before our perceptions. And then one participant mentioned that maybe we have a chance by slowing down our perceptions. in that she told us that for a long time she had been working with handicapped children.

[47:19]

And only when she managed to synchronize herself with the slower time of these children that she could really come in contact with them. And then we go to the center of our thoughts. Does mindfulness really mean that you are slower? And then we focused on, does mindfulness mean to become slower? And the opposite opinion said, for example, that if you think less, that is, think consciously, you actually become faster and not slower.

[48:33]

The opposite opinion was that when you don't think as much, you actually become faster, not slower. Then we went back and forth between slower and faster. Until Caroline had mentioned that Roshi said, everything has its own time. Oh. Not bad. Nicht schlecht. And yes, one of the results was more or less that we said, well, you can't categorize it that way between fast and slow, but it's probably more in the acceptance of how you are right now.

[49:50]

then one of the results was that we said okay we can't really categorize that into slower and faster but that it's more about to accept how how it is And also I would say to feel out the rhythm of things. Then we arrived at acceptance. A wide field. And of course we then thought about how is it possible to accept strong negative emotions.

[51:04]

And then somebody mentioned, oh, maybe it's possible like how she had experienced it during morning zazen. as something was itching in her face. But she didn't scratch herself. And after a while it was gone. We have these small accomplishments. We are not so easy to do. When you want to add something, you Okay, good.

[52:32]

Is there anyone else who wants to say something from last night? Yes, the afternoon. I like to, if possible, as you know, I always say it over and over again, like to hear everyone's voice at least once, you know. And, you know, I actually... flatten my lips together quite a bit during these seminars. Yeah, so, I mean, you could at least do a little more. Because I need to hear what you feel. If I sit up, you know, we could just, I could sit here and there could be groups coming by on treadmills in one room, and I could talk, and the next group would come by in a treadmill, and then... I can't do that.

[53:33]

I don't want to do that. On a belt, you know. Next group. You have to join me. This is no fun unless it's really specific. Real specific, yes. I would like to ask something else. Somebody brought up the role of love. For me, fear is also an important emotion.

[54:34]

Yesterday, when I went back home, I was sent in a petition as a contestant from the spiritual path to Mecca. In a newspaper that is sent to me right now, I read about a pilgrimage, a spiritual pilgrimage to Mecca. It was said that Iran announced something like

[55:49]

against the United States. demanded that... How do you call these people on the pilgrimage? Pilgrims. Pilgrims, yeah. Demanded that the pilgrims... That was easy. ...should use this as a kind of mantra. And this scared me. Yeah. I used to have that mantra when I was younger, too.

[57:12]

During the Vietnam War and so on. Well, we have these strong emotions, love and fear and others. The only thing that while on the one hand practice is to find a mind underneath or free of such strong feelings. And that somehow allows us to or creates possibility to feel love and fear more purely.

[58:13]

In the case of fear, to see it, you know, it's almost like an object. You can see its roots and you can sometimes snip the roots. One of the fruits of practice is fear. Fearlessness. But one of the fruits of practice is not lovelessness. But it's good to love with some caution and wisdom. Even if you throw caution to the winds. Throw caution to the winds. To be without caution, but still. So, Agita?

[59:42]

Right? Yeah, you're the person I promised we'd continue today. Oh, yeah. I was in the group with Beate. Somebody in the group told us that when He fully gives himself to an activity. That this means, to him, means to be mindful. My question is, what is the difference between possibly wholesome consciousness and mindfulness?

[61:02]

By this kind of consciousness I mean attention and a bodily feeling and mental presence. Yeah, it's a good question. Well, we have to be, you know, mindfulness, we need to be mindful of our unwholesome, you know, tendencies or states of mind and so forth. But the mindfulness tends to draw unwholesome states of mind into wholesomeness.

[62:30]

And I think we can identify in the fullest sense a wholesome state of mind and a mindful state of mind. Now I'm responding to your words. To some extent feeling, but I don't know exactly if that's what you meant. That is where for me the difficulty lies to reach that point or to get to it. Okay.

[63:37]

Well, you know, we started this seminar Friday night. And for some of you we started Friday morning. And I think we're somewhere else than where we started. At least for me, we're in some kind of field of practice or even somehow in the midst of the Eightfold Path. To me, it's miraculous that I can feel that or we can do that, I think, for many of us anyway. And just since Friday. And it makes a difference to be all together. If I was just one to one with each of you, it'd be actually, then we'd have certain kind of conditions to make it possible.

[64:58]

to be where we are as a group. And I think generally to be one-to-one for like several days with someone, both persons' practice has to be quite mature to sustain that much attention. because we tend to go back into our more comfortable and usual state of mind. The kind of intensity of concentration required intensity of concentration required, is sustained, more easily sustained, when you're with a group of people.

[66:21]

Now, The idea of a practice period is it starts here and continues for three months. So there's a kind of osmosis, a seepage of dharma. This is a kind of osmosis, seepage. Seepage means seep in, like water seeps in through a wall. Oh, the seepage of Dharma. Yeah, why not? Because sometimes, I said why not, because sometimes seepage is garbage, you know.

[67:21]

The seepage of Dharma. That's pretty bad, actually. So it makes a difference to create some conditions for yourself where dharma is always present. And one of the signs of immersion in the Eightfold Path is when Dharma is always present in all your perceptions and mental activity.

[68:38]

Now, how can you understand what I mean by dharma is always present? Well, I think we can take it to mean, at least for now, when like the five dharmas are present. Or the process of the four marks are present. And did we tape the pre-day? Oh, so... You know, I don't get a cut of the tape, so, you know, but if you want to know about the four marks, you can buy the tape. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now, I said this morning in Zazen, during the first period, something like the concentration.

[70:09]

The target words could be equipoise and equanimity. Equipoise means... mental and physical balance. And more specifically it refers to a immovable or undisturbable state of mind. You can't throw this fundamental mind off balance. And also the other target word being equanimity. Which is to treat everything with Equalness with evenness.

[71:25]

That's not so easy to do. But it's possible to do. Not so difficult to do. I mean, I think my example would be it's fairly easy to treat each baby with equalness, evenness. Most of us can do that. So we know we can do it. Now try it with adults. But if you can do it with a baby, you can do it with adults. And that's, you know, anyway. So it's not so difficult. What's possible is possible.

[72:43]

Was möglich ist, ist möglich. Now I say target words. Ich sage Zielworte. Because, you know, we have this word. These are all eight target words. What the heck do they mean? All diese sind Zielworte. Was bedeuten sie eigentlich? We can bring our attention to the word and the word from our memory opens up into various things. We can bring our attention to the word and it opens up into various things through our memory. But is that what the word means in practice? Well, first of all, this is a translation. And I forgive you the original word in Sanskrit or Pali, it doesn't help you either.

[73:55]

I actually think it's easier to modify a word in your own language than to create a whole new meaning for a word you don't have any connection with. Maybe easier to bend something than to create something. Yeah. But then... This word concentration, I don't know, I don't like it. Because normally it means, you know, you make an effort to do something, you concentrate. Don't bother your father, he's concentrating. Why did you come in the room?

[75:01]

You just broke my concentration. This is not Buddhist concentration. Oh, hi, come on in, kids. You know, it's fine. Don't mind me. I'm going to keep working. The cat on your shoulder, the kids are pulling in your clothes. The vase just fell over again. This is parental training. So concentration is a concentration that's present without effort.

[76:02]

So anyway, one of our target words is concentration. So I try to make the target more specific. So I try to make the target more specific. To bring in, when I saw I brought in equipoise and equanimity. Yeah, but that's still, it's not in the words. More like in some ease you find in your body. More often for us in our satsang. Or in sasin we may more clearly feel our lack of ease.

[77:13]

Yeah, I mean, maybe you can sleep like a baby. We say sleep. Babies, I don't know how it works. But anyway, we have that phrase, to sleep like a baby. We have to sleep like a stone. Oh, to sleep like a stone. Like an old stone. But maybe you don't even sleep like a stone. But if you could sleep like a baby, like a stone, then can you bring that into your zazen? I fill your bed with stones.

[78:15]

I can't sleep like a stone, but I can sleep with one. Am I so funny? No, I mean, I guess you are. I don't know. I mean... I don't know. I hope so. You didn't translate this part. Yes. This last part really confused me. That really confused me that we're supposed to bring this sleep into the zazen because concentration for me, I have this image or this idea a curtain, or a curtain that somehow hangs in front of the consciousness, so that it becomes thinner or more transparent, or at least I am more aware of it.

[79:43]

The curtain is where I try to look through. that this curtain that usually, or at least this is how I feel, that is hanging before consciousness gets thinner or more transparent, and that I have a feeling of being able to look through it, more through it. Yeah, that's good. And not to sleep like a baby. And not to sleep like a baby. Well, zazen can also be to be as relaxed as you could possibly be sleeping, more relaxed than that. But you're awake at the same time. So I'm going to maybe come back to sleep and zazen at some point before we end. Are you giving your own little talk here?

[80:47]

Oh, well. I come back to sleeping. I come... Oh, yeah. I said you would come back to sleeping in zazen. I do sometimes. Okay. Schlafen und zazen. Nicht schlafen und zazen. I'll try to do both maybe. Okay. Vielleicht versuche ich beides zu tun. Today we don't... We continue until, I guess, one o'clock or something like that.

[81:48]

So people can have a more free leaving in the morning. I mean in the afternoon. And I guess a little shoveling of snow has to be done. It's not like our first machine, though. Was anybody here for that first machine? The cars were just bombed. It was solid snow between every car. It was great. So I think rather than try to start, enter into this Eightfold Path again, it would be nice to discover, really discover the path together today.

[83:06]

I don't know if we can. But let's see if we can do it. But now let's see if we never break together. We can sit for a moment.

[83:22]

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