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Transcending Duality Through Mindfulness
AI Suggested Keywords:
Seminar_Mind_and_Environment
The talk primarily examines the practice of mindfulness in relation to feelings, emphasizing the importance of achieving a neutral state to transcend the duality of pleasant and unpleasant experiences. It explores the concept of non-habituated awareness and discusses the role of the Five Hindrances—desire, ill will, indifference, restlessness, and doubt—within mindfulness practice. The conversation also delves into themes of aloneness and connection, highlighting how deeper acceptance and mindfulness lead to freedom from habitual responses.
- Viktor Frankl: Illustrates a story about acceptance leading to unexpected outcomes, highlighting the importance of acceptance in mindfulness.
- Four Foundations of Mindfulness: A central tenet in the discussion, focusing on the practice of mindfulness of feelings and the need to distinguish between nourishing experiences and those simply pleasant or unpleasant.
- Dogen: Referenced with a poem illustrating the impermanence and non-repeatability of each moment, reinforcing the themes of transience and uniqueness within the practice.
- Five Hindrances: Desire, ill will, indifference, restlessness, and doubt are discussed in the context of their impact on mindfulness and concentration.
- Suzuki Roshi: Mentioned as a model of being 'fundamentally alone but functionally together,' exemplifying the integration of personal practice with social engagement.
- Biography of Suzuki Roshi: A particular text discussed for its exploration of the teacher's life and practice, signifying the importance of biographical works in understanding Zen teachings.
AI Suggested Title: Transcending Duality Through Mindfulness
come into mindfulness of feeling, not so conditioned by pleasantness or unpleasantness. You've reversed it. Usually pleasantness goes into liking. Unpleasanness into disliking. And disliking part goes into not noticing it then. So we cut out a big part of our experience. And one of the antidotes to this is to, this practice I emphasized when I was here, I believe in February and March, to bring your attention and energy
[01:06]
Equally to each moment. Each moment as it appears. And you let each moment enfold. And with a feeling of completing it or... Not separating yourself, it unfolds. So the practice of bringing your attention and energy equally to each thing, whatever it is. This is one also of the main keys to practice. Like the breath, bringing attention to your breath is one of the main keys. And both of these are related to a mind of acceptance.
[02:18]
Because without developing this mind of acceptance, you immediately move into this seesaw mind of likes and dislikes. Was it Viktor Frankl, someone like that, tells a story about a play which required one of the parts was for a stutterer. And Viktor Frankl has developed an actor and a part of it So they chose somebody who stuttered to play the role of the stutterer.
[03:20]
And according to the story, what happened? As soon as he had to play the role, he couldn't stutter. Once he accepted being a stutterer, he couldn't stutter. So they had to get a non-stutterer to stutter. It's similar. So this movement into mindfulness of feeling is part and parcel
[04:24]
inseparable from, of coming into a mind of acceptance. So this wonderful rainstorm, you may start thinking of it as pleasant, pleasant. Yeah, or perhaps unpleasant if you were planning to ride your bicycle. But if you move into just acceptance, You see that pleasant and unpleasant start to dissolve. And then you move closer to this feeling, which can be called neutral. Or accepting things just as they are. So neutral is also the gate of thusness.
[05:39]
And thusness is another word for the experience of emptiness. So again, we have a very simple practice here of noticing this basic quality of aliveness. And noticing it has a direction toward pleasantness and unpleasantness. which eliminates the experience of neutral, so since the teaching includes neutral, and we don't like neutral, neutral means boring, But this is a wisdom teaching.
[06:51]
So you say, what's there, hidden in the word neutral? And you get the feeling of reversing the direction of pleasant and unpleasant. So through the practice of acceptance, pleasant and unpleasant, turn more toward neutral. Practice the pleasant and unpleasant. Turn more toward neutral. And neutral opens up in a brightness that covers everything. I think of some lines from a Chinese poet I might throw together.
[07:58]
I think it goes something like... In English. Spring... Spring comes on the edge of the world. Der Frühling kommt an der Grenze der Welt. On the edge of the world, again, day slants. What's slants? Slant is an angle. Okay. Und an der Grenze der Welt... That's slanting. Ja, also rutscht der Tag. Who can count... The many new leaves of spring. Or the twigs still wet with rain. And I like this feeling of being spring comes at the edge of the world.
[09:02]
It's a little like being alone in Shakespeare or in the rainstorm. And there's this wonderful sense of transience in this second mind. Because the world is already slanting, the sun is already slanting toward afternoon. So even though this is a beautiful spring day, we're on the edge of spring. The day itself, we're on the edge of the earth, perhaps. The day itself is turning. And in the midst of this, who knows how many new leaves there are?
[10:06]
Who can count them? Or the many twigs still wet with rain. So in this, this is beyond pleasant or unpleasant. And it's not graspable because the day is already turning away. So I think we should take a break. And we're supposed to eat now at what time? 6.30, I think. Okay, so it's 20 to 5. Shall we come back at 5 or 5 after 5? 5 or 5 after 5 or 5? Okay.
[11:17]
So I thought I should... Maybe say a little bit more about feelings. As a practice. And how that relates to form as objects of mind. And then I would like to have some discussion with you about whatever you'd like to speak about. So what we notice, and the key to this mindfulness of feelings, to the mindfulness of what we notice in this practice of the mindfulness of feeling, that we only discover through the actual practice of bringing mindfulness to feelings,
[12:58]
That the key is the word neutral. That you begin to notice that as soon as the direction of feeling is toward unpleasant and pleasant, attachment arises. Or as traditionally is said, through contact craving arises. It's normal to prefer pleasant to unpleasant. And it's essential to surviving. If you eat sand, it's quite unpleasant and not very good for you.
[14:20]
On the basis of pleasant and unpleasant, we choose our foods and so forth. But this comparative mind can take over all of our thinking. And when the habit of comparing does take over and we soon are comparing ourselves to others and so forth. and our present self to our future self. This is called delusion. What? But where is the line between simply pleasant and unpleasant and delusion?
[15:25]
You have to find out. And this practice of Four Foundations of Mindfulness attempting to show you where that line is. I use the word nourishment and to help you discover dharmas. Yeah, I mean, it's a fine distinction between what's pleasant and what's nourishing.
[16:31]
But these distinctions, in these distinctions is everything. If you make distinctions between each moment, whether it's pleasant or unpleasant, you're very soon in trouble. But if you make a distinction on how this present moment is nourishing or not. It's something different, I think. What I mean by, say you're walking along and you and you feel unpleasant. You're really relating to your state of mind. But if you shift to feeling if you're nourished by your walking, it changes the direction of the mind into the activity and into the body.
[17:43]
So strangely, I think you can practice with whether something's nourishing or not. And it tends toward dharmic experience. But unpleasant and pleasant tends easily toward karmic experience. Away from acceptance instead of toward acceptance. So traditionally you're also just in this practice.
[18:50]
Traditionally. You notice whether it's mentally pleasant or unpleasant or physically pleasant or unpleasant. And again, these distinctions are made so that you can free yourself from distinction. Because if you begin to see the pattern of how you change feeling into comparisons, if you see the pattern, you can begin to reverse the pattern. So this practice is what I'm emphasizing in the seminar. And this practice as a craft.
[19:54]
Handwork and geistwerk. Handwork and geistwerk. So when something comes up, you notice how it's shaped by the senses. And whether it's shaped in a habitual way or not so habituated a way. So you begin to notice whether you're at the level of feeling, your reaction is habituated or not.
[20:57]
And now you notice a deeper satisfaction when it's less habituated. It is a deeper well-being if it does not happen as usual. You notice when it's clearer or less clear. So you're moving toward a clarity which is similar to this sense of neutrality. Now let me relate this to, again, form as objects of mind. Now, sometimes this is just said to be mindfulness of phenomena. But you can't be mindfulness of phenomena without your mind.
[22:02]
So it points out that everything is an object of mind. Okay. So what are, let me go to the five hindrances. This is clearly a kind of science, a kind of inner science. And the five hindrances have a kind of scientific-based way of thinking. The first of the five hindrances is desire. is possessiveness. Do you... When you see something like this, are you attached to it or not?
[23:19]
And the second of the five hindrances is ill will. And the second hindrance is... I don't know what it means, but... Dislike? So, I mean, you can either desire an object or push it away. And ill will usually means aversion, attraction, aversion. You see, they're opposite.
[24:20]
It's a kind of science. Attraction, aversion. And it's like pleasant and unpleasant. And you notice this movement of the mud. Attraction or aversion. And it really depletes us. A full day of attraction and aversion and you're ready for bed. beer and a mind-numbing television program. Mind-numbing. Okay.
[25:22]
And ill will, saying ill will instead of aversion, What has the feeling that you've carried ill will into this moment? Before the bell even appeared, you were ready to feel ill will. Like people who feel it's their obligation in the name of honesty to show you what's wrong with everything. And there's a lot of very smart people out there. who are being very honest and they show you what's wrong with everything.
[26:26]
And they're right, but they're not very happy. Because they bring ill will into each situation. So that's a second of the... Five hindrances. And the third is indifference. Or laziness or sloth. Or torpor. I like that. Torpor. Yeah. A lot of people are quite smart, you know, but they don't have any energy in their wiring. How do you mean? I mean, some people have good genetic wiring, but they don't push any current through the wires.
[27:32]
It's interesting. When you see real smart people, sometimes their wiring is not much better, but all this energy is shooting through the wires, you know. So torpor is also a condition of you just don't know how to bring your energy up into situation. You neither care about possessing it, you don't care about deflating it, you don't give a shit. This is indifference. And that's very different from detachment. So the third... fourth... Hindrance is restlessness.
[28:38]
You're neither attracted nor not attracted, nor lazy, just sort of restless. You can't settle on anything. And fifth is doubt. Does a mountain doubt? Hat ein Berg Zweifel? Does a dog doubt? Hat ein Hund Zweifel? And then Dogen has that poem, Even though the blossoms fall in the spring wind. Und Dogen hat dieses Gedicht, Obwohl die Blütenblätter im Frühjahrswind fallen. The leaves, something like the leaves, don't appear. through hesitation. So even in the midst of everything changing, there's some intention which is not doubt.
[29:45]
So if you practice with this awareness non-habituated awareness of mindfulness of feeling. When you practice, when you realize non-habituated awareness, I have a friend who wants to translate for me. He's not talking like me. I should have her talk to you.
[30:47]
So she just bought an electronic dictionary that has 500,000 English words and room to put in 190,000 others or something like that that you can make up. And she asked me, do you think this is room enough for all the words you make up? Okay. So the fruit of... Mindfulness of feeling is to realize non-habituated awareness. And realizing, we could just call it NHA, non-habituated awareness. You can see, yeah.
[32:09]
N-G-A. Okay, to realize N-G-A. N-G-A. opens you to seeing when objects appear, how immediately they're transformed by these five hindrances. Immediately a kind of possessiveness comes up, or dislike. Or indifference, you don't care about it. You don't have the energy for... You don't have the... energy for noticing each thing equally. So we can also say torpor or sloth is the energy for not coming into each moment equally.
[33:22]
or you doubt whether you're good enough or you doubt whether you like it or whatever or you're simply restless and all these block you from concentration all these block you from being in the present moment and if you don't see them you can't do anything about it So this practice of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness is to create a field of awareness rooted in these four, which allows you to see what arises and blocks awareness.
[34:38]
It doesn't really mean that possessiveness is bad. Maybe it's bad. But the practice is deeper than whether it's bad or good. The practice is just to notice possessiveness and how it affects you. That's acceptance, to notice possessiveness and accept it. And notice how possessiveness affects you. And accept how it affects you. With that attitude, you're more likely to do something about the effect. Now I can give you a simple practice.
[36:52]
which would be based on some experience of the four foundations. Notice how often you make a distinction between self and other. I mean, I look at you and I think, I'm here and you're there. That's the distinction between self and other. All right. Whatever. Notice your green sweater. My black sweater. Thank you. Or I notice what I'm thinking, what you're thinking.
[38:13]
Or I listen to you while I'm thinking about what I'm going to say. These are all distinctions of self and other. And we're constantly in the midst of, and it's useful to notice, how much we do this. If you're talking to somebody, you're thinking, oh, they're there and I'm here, and what does he or she think of me, or something like that. This is one of those habits that keeps widening the gap. Now, language is a very useful semantic tool. It's also a useful syntactical tool.
[39:22]
Okay, now what I mean by that is if I use the word self in a sentence, The word self then belongs to the syntax of the sentence. He doesn't know himself or something like that. Or she knows herself. So the word self is related to the whole sentence. But if we take the word out of the sentence and just use it in a mantric way by repeating it, It loses its syntactical meaning. But it retains some of its semantic meaning. And then you can use it in a mantric way, repetitiously. So if you take, let's say, no self, no other, out of the sentence, out of syntax, it doesn't lose all meaning.
[40:37]
it still has, we could say, semantic meaning. And if you just keep repeating it, it has a surprising power. And syntax always is leading us into the past or future. Because sentences are always going somewhere. But when you take words and use them mantrically... They move you out of time, really into a kind of timelessness. So you just repeat, no self, no other. So on the one hand you're noticing how often you're making this distinction. It's endemic in your thinking.
[41:56]
Permeates your thinking. So you counteract it, you make an antidote. In language. It's a great tool that's been given to us that you can use against language. Use against the one aspect of language. In each situation, just say to yourself, remind yourself, put it in your body. No self, no other. So you're talking to someone. And you may notice you're sort of feeling separate from the person or comparing yourself. Or bored with what they're about to say and you already know what they're going to say.
[43:01]
Because they're one of those completely predictable kind of people. And you have to stand there and let this, whatever they're going to say, rain on you. And they wish you had a hat. Yes. What is the phrase? So gross mid-hood. See, I know a little German. Anyway. But at that moment, repeat to yourself, no self, no other. And you may find this extraordinary being Which is a little scary to be in the presence of.
[44:11]
Because you also are dropping your predictability mind. And your freedom from predictable mind might even make what they say less predictable. But at least you move out of the distinction of self and other. And there's some danger. You feel you're at the edge of the world. Or quite alone, like as I said reading Shakespeare. And now you're in a more non-repeatable universe.
[45:14]
And now you're in the world where you can say, for example, And then you're in a world where you can say, for example, every day is a good day. And they say, for example, on TV, good morning, every day is a nice day. Another good day here. But to probably practice with each day as a good day, there have to be three basic views have to be present. Wisdom views. There's no outside.
[46:19]
Everything is an inside. It's a false distinction, outside and inside. So outside is the outer inside. So if I look at you and I think you're outside, there's only a separation. And I'm just playing with language here, but it makes a difference. So if I look at you and I feel inside, Something different happens. Yes, there's a movement toward an outer inside. And when I pull the energy back, there's a movement toward an inner inside. So wisdom view is to know that everything is inside. There's no outside.
[47:24]
There's no possibility for there being a creator God. Grounded in everything here. then each day is much more likely to be a good day. So let's take one view you could practice with. Like no self, no other? You could practice with no outside. Or everything is inside. Or just on each perception bring the word inside. And here you are already building bridges between mind and environment. So a second view is everything is non-repeatable.
[48:25]
Again. I say it often, but you have to remind yourself of it, I think. Remind yourself of it. That we live in a non-repeatable universe. And one of the reasons Zen practice is the way it is is because it assumes the evolution of consciousness. And one reason why Buddhism is the way it is is because it assumes Many forms of Buddhism are very sophisticated.
[49:27]
They give you a very sophisticated, wise way of coming into realization. But at the same time they basically think that they know where realization is. They think they know what consciousness is and the mind is. So they're giving you a good map. But it's still a map. And Zen assumes you're building a new city within the city. Zen assumes we are building of which there's no map. It's a map for the old city, but not the new city. So the more you come into this non-repeatability, we don't know what consciousness will become.
[50:32]
And even if you scientifically measure the number of possible combinations of proteins or something like that. I don't remember the figures. But if you combine them at some kind of possible rate in relationship to the number of seconds since the Big Bang, it would have to be thousands of times longer than the universe has now existed to even do a half of the possible combinations. In other words, we're rooted in intention.
[51:37]
And society is rooted in intention. And there's an immense persistence to intention. Over tens of thousands of years. stories going back in indigenous cultures, 10 and 20,000 years. But at the same time, we are extraordinarily malleable. Because intentions can be changed. Views can be changed. And when you change your views, you can change your whole life. And when a society changes its views, a society can change dramatically too.
[52:49]
So this is all part of this that we can't predict, that is non-repeatable. that we don't know what consciousness will be. Even our physical way the brain works, if you think of consciousness as brain related, So the second view is it's non-repeatable. And so you're coming into, actually through the gate of mindfulness of feeling, You're coming into this moment right now being not repeatable.
[54:07]
Again, as I repeatedly say, This particular feeling we have right now won't ever come again. And already it's different. And the third view The third view is that things appear and disappear. They are not only not repeating and unique, everything appears and disappears. the coming into standing, the way you were standing a moment ago, has disappeared.
[55:13]
You come into a new standing. Now, the more you have this kind of these wisdom views, Which are praxis ways of saying everything's changing. You actually come into a mind, a being, a becoming, in which each day, each moment is a good day, good moment. Okay. So, we're supposed to eat at 6.30. Yeah. Okay, so let's... How are your legs doing?
[56:21]
You could just... Do you still have them? Airplane seats are worse than zazen though. I can do zazen all day, but all day in an airplane I start getting numb. So is there anything you'd like to speak about? Yes. It started with when you said, if you really practice, you are alone. And that frightened me. And on the one hand I felt, yes, and it's about being connected.
[57:36]
And intellectually I can realize it, but if I go to the base, Really frightened. I'm frightened. Good. If you're frightened, you know what we're talking about. And it's good to turn toward that fear. Not so much that it overwhelms you, but turn toward it. It's funny, you say... I mean, these are words, right? And you say, oh... I'm not alone because I'm connected.
[59:01]
But when you're connected, you're alone. So, if you're in a conversation with someone and you say, no self, no other, self, other is creating separation. So that's a kind of separation, is a kind of aloneness. But at the same time, if you say no self, no other, you're dissolving dualism. No self, no other is a practice to realize non-dualism. It increases connectedness. But you immediately feel a little fear or scary. You feel less protected. So as soon as you... feel less protected and more connected than you feel scared.
[60:17]
And you feel alone in non-dualism. I'm sorry it's like this. It's okay. Thank you very much. Funny, huh? What's in this changes? Also the fear changes. I can't promise it. Yeah, you get used to the fear. Or maybe the thing alone doesn't change. But the fear of being alone doesn't change.
[61:36]
It is strange that through connectedness you realize aloneness. I can give you a history of civilization in six words. Together, together. Zusammen, zusammen. Together, alone. Zusammen, alleine. Alone, together. Alleine, zusammen. That's the history of civilization. Das ist die Geschichte der Zivilisation. Okay, what I mean is, I think... Was ich meine damit... I'll try to make it brief. There's no reason to have this aside. Ich will es sehr kurz machen. There have been a few hundred thousand years in which some kind of human being has been around.
[62:40]
What we call civilization has happened only when people learn to live together. And living together on a large scale produces society, civilization, culture. And I would say probably we first learn to live together together. And what I mean by that is that we learn to live... together with a kind of group mind. The first effort was to be like each other. To use language and all kinds of other things to create people who are like each other so we could work together.
[63:48]
And let society from, you know, Greek times to present times becomes more creative when we learn to live fundamentally together but functionally alone. And then I would say that's contemporary society. If you look at your own mind it's really created from other people. you're constantly thinking about yourself in terms of other people, your parents, people you work with, etc. How these thoughts are related to other people's thoughts. But basically, functionally, you live alone.
[64:51]
you go back to your apartment or your house or whatever it is and you although your mind is still created from other people You function separately. I think the concept of Sangha is opposite. And I think it's the great challenge of Western Buddhism is Sangha. The wisdom teachings of Buddhism divide Buddhism up into Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Most of us get Buddha and Dharma, but we don't get Sangha. The Sangha means, I would say, to live fundamentally alone and functionally together.
[66:10]
This is very hard to do. We're living... So we're experimenting with it here and at Creston. What do I mean by fundamentally alone? Is that my sense of identity and continuity that my feeling of identity and continuity is only peripherally created by other people and is rooted in an experience of emptiness and original mind rooted in non-graspable feeling to the extent that for the most part I feel exactly the same if I'm with 10 people or 50 people or by myself.
[67:30]
That if I'm in a forest of trees, I feel the same as in a forest of people. Because my experience is fundamentally alone. But I can live functionally with people. without comparisons coming up, anger coming up, etc. But if you're constantly comparing yourself or feeling anger and dislike, etc., you need a lot of time alone, physically alone, to handle that. So I think, for instance, you take some big good example like the Dalai Lama, his Holiness.
[68:43]
Or Suzuki Roshi. He could do what he did. And his energy was the same whether he was talking to people or not, or busy or not busy, because he was fundamentally alone. And the way he... Punished himself is from an inner emptiness, if that makes sense. It sounds strange. From an inner emptiness. Or from... a reservoir of non-graspable feeling. So he could function with people without likes and dislikes. Anyway. So the bodhisattva is someone who we could define as living fundamentally alone, but always can easily function with people.
[70:02]
And the four foundations of mindfulness were the four awakenings of mindfulness or to awaken this rootedness we could say in aloneness in which one is never lonely again I mean, you're always with somebody. At least yourself. And that can be quite amusing.
[71:06]
Okay. What else? Let's know. Yes. Since one year or so, I sit with a really deep feeling that a part of me just don't want to or just says very strong no don't don't sit don't sit don't grow don't know don't do it okay and i know how to practice it i mean i'm aware of it but it bothers me um It's good you noticed that. Noticing it is a big part of it. Then why do you continue sitting? What do you like better?
[72:20]
The one that wants to sit, do you like better? Yeah, it just seems pretty normal. And it's good you notice it. Because usually we don't notice it. And we just stop sitting. And there's lots of reasons. But through sitting, you challenge the basic way you're put together. And that has to be discomforting. if not anxiety-making.
[73:26]
And that's, again, why lay practice is so difficult. Because the momentum of the world asks you to continue the way you are. And ordinary compassion asks you to continue the way you are. Because your friends, your society, your parents all want you to continue the way you are. And often you'll find your friends get nervous if you start to seriously practice. So you like your friends and so there's a kind of compassion not to practice. So you have to have a deeper feeling of compassion to undercut this momentum.
[74:36]
You have to have a deeper feeling of compassion to be able to overcome this. And it's again why Sangha is important. Or why I think it's so important, even in lay practice, to have a sight, S-I-T-E, sight-rooted practice. To have a practice rooted in a teacher and a place, and others you practice with. So we have Crestone and Johanneshof.
[76:00]
And I think even if you don't live at Crestone or Johanneshof, The fact that somewhere out there in the world there's people you know who are practicing. Kind of anchor the practice in us. So you know you can come here or question them if you live in the States or... And it's why I'm not a very good practitioner. And so I know that, but I want to practice very deeply. But I know I need all your help. So I've arranged a life where everywhere I go there's a whole lot of people who help me.
[77:06]
Ich habe mein Leben so organisiert, dass überall, wo ich hingehe, es viele Leute gibt, die praktizieren. This is true. I said, thank you very much. Das ist wahr und vielen Dank. You keep me practicing. It's so curious, he used to say that he wears, he'd say, I wear these robes. because it helps remind me to practice. So this kind of place is meant to help us practice, where the momentum of practice may be for a moment at least stronger than the momentum of society. But strangely, when the momentum of practice is deep in even one person, it can change the Momentum of society.
[78:24]
This Chinese poem I gave you, they're actually a mixture of lines from two or three poems of a Chinese poet. If I added another line to his poem, the lines I gave you. A spring day on the edge of the world. On the edge of the world already day slants. Who can count the new leaves of spring, or the many twigs wet in the dawn. This beauty must shake society at its roots, penetrate society at its roots.
[79:47]
If we are going to find a new dawn, If we want to experience a new dimming, a morning dimming. We all have said dinner. So maybe we sit for a moment. My cold is getting better. I think anyway. I don't know.
[80:50]
I think this terrible event which occurred in Littleton, Colorado, which is just north of, just part of Denver, really. And it's just north of San Francisco. of Crestone. And more or less I drove through there to go to the airport the other day. What are these two students? killed 15 people, including themselves. In this high school. It isn't just about the availability of military weapons.
[83:46]
Or the immaturity of teenagers. Or the desensitization of video games, the violence of video games. Although that's a big part of it. I think it's nuts to think we can give our children such video games and television programs. Without assuming it has no effect. To think so just simply doesn't understand how the mind is shaped.
[84:59]
But the deeper cause, I think, was we don't give, our society hasn't given us a world we can believe in. A world that we deeply care about. A world which reflects our deepest intuition of what the world can be. in this world that we can deeply believe in, in which there might be human beings like we really wish human beings were alive.
[86:11]
And in this world there are possibly people from whom we can say, yes, so we have the people of the world. It has to start in each of us. I mean, I think it starts as simply as coming into a trust of yourself. And it starts so simply that you come into a trust of yourself. You're feeling at ease with yourself. And studying when you're noticing how deeply you don't trust just being alive. How deeply you usually don't feel and ease and joy in being alive. And if we can come into ease and joy and trust in being alive, we grow our true nature from this experience.
[87:13]
And we grow our human society from this experience. And we grow our family from this experience. Gerold.
[89:09]
Gerold? Gerold? I'm still learning after that. Gerold. I don't know if you could call it learning, but anyway. Since we've been extremely close friends for 15 years or something. I'm still learning. Um... said that there's one or two people or something who would like to speak to me individually. It's actually a list of five by now. I'm happy to do that this evening or tomorrow afternoon. So you can arrange it and I will do it. Okay.
[90:20]
Whoever would prefer this evening or tomorrow. Okay. Okay. Because I think this evening is more or less free or open or unscheduled. So you could meet some people this evening. Sure. Okay. I'm alive. I'll be good. Thank you. I have a table where you can have stairs or somewhere in that room where you can say the incense and the books if you're interested. That's what we're wanting to set up this evening. Did we ever get enough books of the crooked cucumber to sell? No, they're all asked for.
[91:21]
I see. Yeah, sorry. There's a biography of Sukhiroshi, my teacher. It's been written and it was published a few months ago or so in English. We've been carting copies here in luggage. But I guess they're all asked for. There's a biography of my teacher, Suzuki Roshi, It's quite a nice book and I think eventually it will be in German.
[91:54]
@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_73.19