And then you inhale. So this is meant to carry the mind of meditation with your activity. But it's also meant to Open up how you walk in every circumstance. So I'm walking somewhere, then each step, there's a feeling of the world coming up through me. Okay. If I have such an image, I walk differently.

[01:08]

I'm nourished by my walking. You could say, I don't want to add an image to my walking. But if I want to go from here to that door, that's an image added to my walking. That's an image. Where am I headed? I'm headed toward the image of the door. So we have a situation where, yes, I'm going toward the door, but also I can feel the earth come up through me. And I can go just as fast. In fact, nowadays there are runners who train with ideas like this on an image as they're running of each step nourishing them as they run.

[02:09]

Now maybe we can feel how wisdom is something like being inseparable from the world. Not as thinking, but as our actual experience on each step. Well, I think that whole thing that I just did was going to take about 15 minutes. So we should have a break. Yeah. Thank you very much. So let's try a half hour break and we'll start and have a short session before lunch.

[03:33]

Thank you for translating. Now you all bow much better. With less self-consciousness. What? That's what you said? Yes. Because it's more like a disappearing of the self.

[04:38]

Now we can carry this all too far. But I think when we take a walk with a friend, we're somehow close to this kind of feeling. You're not trying really to get anywhere. You're just somehow walking allows some kind of relationship that's different if you sit in a chair. There's a poem. Yeah, let me give you a poem. It's not much of a poem, but I'll give it to you anyway. The light breeze stirs the pine.

[05:55]

It's even better close by. Ten years of dreams. Zehn Jahre Träume. Ten years of sorrows. Zehn Jahre Sorgen. Following the petals. Den Blüten folgen. Following the grasses. Den Gräsern folgen. Red and green. Rot und grün. Like this, like this. Wie das, wie das. Yeah, that's so clearly not a Western poem. It's clearly Chinese or Asian or something, right? But we know it's Asian, not just because it's a different style.

[06:57]

Because it speaks of a different world. I think Maybe the key is it's even better close by. So yes, a light breeze stirs the pine. It's even better close by. Ten years of dreams, ten years of sorrows. Following the petals.

[08:01]

Following the grasses. It said, to find your teacher, you follow the grasses. Yeah, following the grasses, red, green, like this, like this. Certainly that does express this feeling of letting the world come through you. Yes. I want to see in the time we have today and tomorrow If I can introduce a feeling for this wisdom as it's understood in Buddhism and a yogic culture.

[09:20]

Because I think it's potentially useful. Because I believe it is potentially useful. And we have this title. And when I look at something like the path of wisdom, this may seem stupid to you. Doom clinging. Doom cough. But, you know, I have this habit from practicing a long time, pretty long time, of taking each thing equally.

[10:25]

Of treating a sentence like this as an object. Not initially as a vehicle of meaning. So, So what's the first word? It's the. The, das. So I thought, well, I'll start with the. What's the? And it means in, means something like in such a man. Or it means thus.

[11:35]

So then I looked at path. And path literally means to tread. To touch. Discover. Discover. But it really, like tread of a tire. Tread of a tread? The surface of a tire is to tread. Is it to tread? Don't we have some Irish help in the back? Yes, the sole of the foot. The surface of what touches the ground. Thank you.

[13:00]

And of is coming from. Centering on. Or centering on. derived from, but that's nearly the same. And wisdom is something like in its roots to see clearly the visible and invisible. Das Sehbare und das Unsichtbare.

[14:28]

Das Sichtbare und Unsichtbare. So if we do take something like the topic seriously. Und wenn wir das Thema ernst nehmen. The path of wisdom. The path of wisdom. And I don't look for it in Buddhism, I look for it in English. It means something like to thus touch and discover what comes from wisdom. But in this, to see the visible and invisible, that's something, but still it's really not the territory of the yogic concept of wisdom. But this first, maybe the first two words are pretty good, the path to, in such a manner to discover.

[15:31]

Through actually touching. Yeah, no, I've been talking enough. Would you please, could you say something here? What's in your mind? What has this made you think of so far? Not this, but everything we talked about. Yeah. Where does your hope come from that we will end war, that we will stop being warriors?

[16:44]

I didn't say we'd stop being warriors. I said we'd stop and end war. Where does it come from? I don't know. It seems crazy to kill each other. You or your parents grew up in wartime Germany. Most of you, anyway. But I grew up in America in the 40s. I think in 1940 I was four. Four or five. And I remember every day we listened to the news. And I mean, it was every morning, every night we listened to the news.

[17:46]

It was like the frame of our existence. And there were constant, everyday reports on what was happening in Belgium, Italy, Germany, etc. And I very early formed a desire to not live in this world, if that's what the world is like. And that feeling has shaped much of my life. It's probably the root of why I walked out of college just before graduation. I really did not want to participate in any official way in this society, this world, this Western world that I knew it.

[18:54]

That's not Western, Eastern, it's just that's the only world I knew then. So I didn't want a college degree and stuff like that because I didn't want an official entry into our world. Yeah, so I led this weird life. But I did decide to stay alive. I don't know. That's the best answer I can give. You said yesterday that the mind is structured by the culture. How come that in our culture some folks don't care a damn about Buddhism and others do?

[20:11]

I wonder why myself. I don't know. Right now, I think too many people care about Buddhism. It becomes some kind of fashion, you know. And there's an awful lot of teachings and teachers who are making Buddhism into something really a form of psychology or a form of Western thinking. Because you do want to make contact with others. Yeah, so I choose to try to... Yeah, to really look at the differences so we can find a new way within ourselves that's perhaps neither Asian or Western.

[21:36]

Also ich versuche die Unterschiede zu betrachten und zu erforschen, um etwas in uns selbst zu finden, was vielleicht weder westlich noch östlich ist. Well, my question, or I'm just noticing what's behind it, is actually the question, is there in your explanation model also something like a term like resistance or denial? I noticed that behind my question is another question which is interested in, is there something like resistance or denial? Of what? The truth of Buddhism or something like that? Denial of...

[22:37]

To see that what is. Yeah. Well, most people's habits of mind shape what they see, right? Yeah, and so... that for them is what is. I think for most people that's the case. Then there's another aspect. I mean, in America, Buddhism was... And still, well, Buddhism was certainly for the last 20 years counterculture.

[23:47]

Yeah, I mean, nobody who had any normal place in society would study Buddhism. People could be an atheist. It was easy to be an atheist, but you couldn't practice yoga. If you were a government official or president of a corporation, you wouldn't tell anybody you practiced yoga. Nowadays, in the last 10 years, that's not the case. Now, in that aspect, coming to Europe, I found Europe much more liberal than the United States. Und in dieser Hinsicht fand ich, dass Europa viel liberaler ist als die Vereinigten Staaten.

[25:00]

Lots of people practice in Germany and German-speaking Europe who aren't counterculture. They just decide to do it and they have some freedom to do it. Ja, also viele in Europa praktizieren, ohne dass sie eine Gegenkultur angesagen haben. But if I go back to the example of how many of you raised your hands from the feeling someone's looking at you. One of the most common occurrences that people have noticed who study this You feel it while you're, say, driving a car and you're stopped at a light and you feel somebody looking and you turn, there's somebody in the other car looking right at you.

[26:08]

And you thought you were alone and you were picking your nose. And you thought you were alone and you were picking your nose. But not many people, even though I would bet a large percentage of the population knows that feeling. virtually no one will seriously study it. Because it's in a category you better not look at. Because it threatens your worldview. It suggests we're connected in some way that nothing in our language or culture acknowledges.

[27:19]

Then you add to that people in professions So my experience is that people who are likely to be successful in the world generally won't practice Buddhism unless they're particularly astute or retired or something. Because it challenges their worldview and their success. Anyway, I don't know. That's what I noticed. I believe that has something to do with the image of Buddhism to sit and wait for enlightenment.

[28:48]

And I'm always touched, and I've already heard you a couple of times. And I'm always touched, and I've already heard you a couple of times. That Buddhism really shows up in the equanimity and the presence in everyday life. And I talked yesterday about the fact that in the Buddhist movement I often miss the compassion and the influence that they show in the social society. So I think the Buddhists have too little social awareness. And I talked with some people, and I feel that Buddhism shows up too little in social institutions, in social life together.

[30:24]

In social institutions or just in social life? Social... in a bigger movement like in hospitals I see my Christianity not so much in the Buddhist but but before I thought if you tell the example of Suzuki Roshi who gives the feeling in every moment that he really sees and works But when you talked about Suzuki Roshi, you had the impression, feeling that he was acknowledging you in every moment. That's a very fundamental... That is the real fundamental and deep practice that I give another person the feeling of being acknowledged.

[31:33]

Yeah, and dignified all the time. Yeah, that's good. Let me give you something to think about here, coming from Illich, Ivan Illich again. We had quite a long discussion that's gone on now for about a year back and forth. When we had a chance to talk or communicate. about compassion. Because he thinks compassion is understood in the West and the introduction of the word is one of the corruptions of Western society that's arisen through Christianity.

[32:54]

That you have to repeat again. That compassion that compassion and the introduction of the idea of compassion is part of the corruption of Western society that's arisen through Christianity. And I guess he would say something like, Christianity has made so many deals institutionally to be spread in countries through the through the political leaders and the kings and so forth. I hope I'm not doing damage to his ideas here. And he would say, I think, the story of the Good Samaritan is really about one person who happens to see another person's suffering and helps them.

[34:22]

It's not about you should feel that way. This person just felt that way. So it's about the free decision to help another person. And what happens to you when you make that free decision? So instead, it got institutionalized into good Samaritan houses. And I don't know if you know the history of hospices and hospitals in the West, but they were used to house beggars, basically, and let them die. And the walls around cities were... Often not to keep invaders out, but to keep beggars out.

[35:40]

So when I was in Berlin just recently, someone told a story about a friend of theirs. would arrange to have their kids taken care of. And this is the third-hand repetition of this story. And they went to Italy and were hoping to have a wonderful vacation. Und die sind nach Italien gefahren und hofften, dass sie einen wunderschönen Urlaub machen. And they picked a nice restaurant. Die haben ein schönes Restaurant sich ausgesucht.

[36:42]

So they were on the way to the restaurant and it was still a nice sunny early or late afternoon, early evening. Und ja, es war immer noch ein schöner Spätnachmittag. And a homeless family accosted them, came up to them. And the homeless family tried to get some help from them, or, could you help us? And their attitude seemed to be something like, there's institutions to help you, we're on the way to the restaurant. Und deren Haltung war, es gibt Einrichtungen für euch, wir sind auf dem Weg zu einem schönen Restaurant. We pay for our social services to take care of you. Ja, wir zahlen für unsere sozialen Dienste, um euch zu verpflegen. So somehow they didn't relate to these people, they didn't bow to these people, they just kind of denied their existence.

[37:46]

So they went into the restaurant. About 20 minutes later, there was a big commotion, and this homeless family appeared at the door of the restaurant. Picked up a plate at the door and threw it like a... What are those things you throw? No, that game. Threw it like a frisbee and nearly took the guy's ear off. Now, I think Illich would say this is something, a horrible thing to do, but it's one of the things of not actually relating to those people. I don't mean that we shouldn't have hospitals and things like that, but somehow we shouldn't say society is going to take care of that.

[39:02]

We're not going to relate to each person. Somehow we've got to let the situation of the world into us. But I don't mean what's happening in Africa or China. I mean what's happening right here when you walk around. That's all. Yes? I remember once when I did a session with you in Haus der Stille. years ago, when you looked at us while we were doing the Kimo-in. It was very mechanical.

[40:05]

It was quite awful. It was just doing a habit, but there was no relation to cancer. And then you were talking about your teacher, who taught you to have the right angle. So what we did afterwards was that we were practising this, and for me there was a very deep experience of being moved, very deep inside. So what I got from that is there are some techniques which really needs some bigger space. And some attitudes just are attitudes. But at the end, there are two experiences. This is one experience, and this is another experience.

[41:06]

When we talk about walking, I could say, yes, this is the way Western physicians Not physicians. Physicists. Talk about gravitation. It's not only that the world is pulling me to it. I also gravitate with the world, so I can't see it. But it's just another way to see it. It is not... I couldn't see... I think it's a better mood, perhaps, but at the end there are only two experiences. German, please. German, please. Yes, I see that one is a more pleasant experience than the other. It's not quite translating.

[42:17]

So we have an experience of what you said in English and an experience of what you said in German. But it is true that when you walk, we put our hands like that. And then when we do this meditative walking, then we turn our hands up slightly. And you can feel it for yourself. It makes a difference whether it's like this, or like this, or like this, or like this. Each one is a kind of different grammar of mind and body. And some schools do it this way.

[43:41]

I find that a little bit too rigid myself. Ich finde das etwas zu rigide. It's okay for, you know, but it's a little rigid. This is too relaxed. There's an alertness in this which is still soft. So we choose what experience we want. All experiences are not equal. This kind of thing, it helps if you're part of a world where it's supported. This kind of experience is supported. There was a woman over here who wanted to say something. I'm still in this environment of self-centered thoughts from last night, or how much of my thoughts are about myself, or how much of them are about myself, or how much of them are related to me.

[44:57]

I'm still... I'm still in what you said yesterday in those thoughts which are self-referred. Self-referencing. And I noticed that it's still a big part in me. And it's now completely new for me to be again at that point. And again I feel that I'm afraid to let go of it. And at the same time when I let it happen, I feel how bigger for liberation there is.

[46:04]

You have a choice. Okay. Well, let me say one thing and then we'll stop for lunch. I want to introduce the idea of a juncture, a juncture where something is joined. I'm trying to work toward an accessible way for us to start noticing connectedness. Für uns einen Weg zu finden, wodurch wir Verbundenheit bemerken können, wahrnehmen können. Okay. So sometimes an example, it occurred to me some time ago.

[47:08]

Ja, vor einiger Zeit kam mir dieses Beispiel in den Sinn. There was a big storm at Johanneshof. Da gab es einen riesen Sturm im Johanneshof. You know, the trees are thrashing, etc. Ja, die... And similar type big storms we have at Crestone, even bigger. And sometimes you'll speak to somebody in the morning. And you'll say, did you notice the storm we had last night? Oh, I didn't notice anything. I slept well. And I would say, before I asked, I could usually tell who had felt the storm during the night and who didn't. There's a kind of excitement or aliveness in people. Well, that was quite a storm. So I would call that a juncture.

[48:23]

You felt the storm. Well, sometimes we have that juncture with other people. Maybe the good Samaritan. You walk along the street and you see somebody and you feel something. Like there's a Baudelaire poem, I fell in love crossing the street and I never saw her again. But there's also junctures with ourself when we have a kind of experience of our energetic experience of ourself. But that sense of a juncture can be present with each thing.

[49:28]

And that Feeling is something also which I could say is part of the path of wisdom. To begin to not want to walk past anything. Usually we walk right past, rush past, that which is nearest. Because somehow it's not in the category of what we notice. That's why I did the path of taking each word equally. Of course, some people we know better than others.

[50:35]

And some people will have different junctures with. But we can feel some sort of juncture with each person actually. We can let it, it requires a little inner pause or inner bow. I picked up one of your books in the office up there. Yeah, by somebody I know slightly, actually. We talked about him earlier. So I opened the book up. And he was listening to a Hawaiian shaman. He said, you should bless everyone you meet. And if you can't find something to bless, but you can always find something to bless.

[52:06]

You can bless them for exhaling, which helps the plants. Maybe that's a little silly. Or killing the plants. But really you can feel some kind of or even blessing with each perception and each observation. Good or bad, something like that is treading, touching the path of wisdom. If you're willing, I'd like us to sit for a minute or two.

[53:09]

The light breeze stirs the pine. Die leichte Brise bewegt die Fichte. It's even better close up. Es ist sogar besser nahebei. Ten years of dreams. Zehn Jahre Träume. Ten years of sorrows. Zehn Jahre Sorgen. Following the petals, following the grasses. Red and green like this. Like this. Just now, what is it?

[56:41]

Yeah, thank you very much again. Hi. I want to say, yeah. I'd like to try to say some things. But I'm a little worried that my words are not poetic enough or not obscure enough.

[58:32]

Because I don't... If my words are too clear, the clarity simplifies things. And it's easy to get an idea. Yeah, an idea is not what I mean. So what I mean by the path of wisdom as I know it through practicing is something like Yeah, I hate to use the word, but a flow of relatedness, connectedness.

[59:53]

It changes how we, yeah, experience the world. And that changed experience changes the kind of decisions we make, the kind of satisfaction we have. And how our sense of self isn't limited to our person or our family. But our sense of self, it feels like it covers everything.

[61:06]

So if you can imagine how you feel about when you... about... the sense of self you have. And you can imagine that feeling for your child or your brothers and sisters, your parents. You can imagine some quality like that, yeah, not the same, but some quality like that touching everything.

[62:17]

That kind of feeling is a path touching the earth, touching the world. This kind of feeling is a touching of the earth, of the world. It generates a way of behaving that in Buddhism is called wisdom. Yeah, that's too much of a little formula, but it's something like that. Formula. Now part of that is to not feel things as entities.

[63:19]

Not to feel things as somehow permanent. Yeah, permanent or having some nature that's there from the past extending into the future. Of course, to some extent that's true. The tree that's out there in the morning and the evening and the next day is pretty much the same tree. It's so much the same tree that the word truth and tree share the same etymological roots, if not botanical roots. Now dharma means to notice, act within the momentariness of everything.

[64:46]

Dharma bedeutet in der Augenblicklichkeit von allem zu handeln. So at every moment, each of us is a kind of act of imagination. If you're not so much emphasizing the past and the future, There's a kind of little flowering that happens on each moment. You know, this sense of a juncture with yourself. And when you feel yourself as an act of appearing on each moment.

[66:10]

You know, right now I'm speaking a certain way and sitting a certain way. And my words are a little different, each phrase. And what I say affects how I feel. So to some extent, on each moment, I'm in a, what can I say, a kind of imaginative act. But at each moment you also are an imaginative act. So if I relate to you not in the sense of You're Heinrich and you were pretty much the same guy I met yesterday.

[67:25]

But since you've discovered bowing, you're a slightly different person. Or at each moment, each of us, you know, you're not exactly the same person. Yeah, you're different from me. I'm a little different because I met you. You have influenced me and I am also a little different because I have met you. I am also a little different because I know these two Andreases. Who are so different and have things in common too. And so each of us is Viva and her father sitting here.

[68:44]

And even you know each other a long time, but there's something different all the time in what I feel in the two of you. Okay, so we spoke about the Bodhisattva is not one who courses in difficulty. The Bodhisattva is one who courses in ease. Er ist einer, der in Leichtigkeit kreuzt. What this means is you have a choice about what you decide to notice, to respond to. Das bedeutet, dass du eine Wahl hast, was du bemerkst und worauf du antwortest.

[69:49]

How do you make the choice? Wie wählst du? Well, the first choice is you make a choice that allows you to notice the most. And you make the choice that allows you to... include the most. They were the same. Now, from the point of view of Dharma practice, that's to notice the momentariness of each thing. heißt das, die Augenblicklichkeit jeder Sache zu bemerken.

[70:51]

Because if you tend to notice the permanence, weil wenn du die Unvergänglichkeit bemerkst, which is the habit of consciousness and the habit of language, welches die Gewohnheit vom Bewusstsein und von der Sprache ist, if I notice the permanence of Viva, I notice a lot less because I tend to see the same things. So if I notice the, well, we could say the impermanence, that's kind of a negative way to frame it. And I don't know what words to use. Let's say that I notice, let's use the words I chose before, I notice the generative moment of it. imaginative moment.

[72:11]

The way we're appearing, participating in that appearance at each moment. So if I notice that and I feel that in myself, which helps me notice that in another. Then I... There's a juncture or connectedness just through that shared appearance. Because there's a mutuality in that.

[73:13]

It's a mutual appearance. Yeah. I mean, there's Andreas and there's me, but there's something when I'm around Andreas or around, I'm sorry, I don't know you very well, but Heinrich. I feel a Heinrich, Rickard appearance. Yes, then I feel the Heinrich Richard appearance. Yes, and when I switch to you, then I feel something different than when I look at you. tend to notice that.

[74:24]

That's my habit to notice that. That's like the choice of a bodhisattva, the course in ease rather than course in difficulty. It doesn't mean that there aren't difficulties. It doesn't mean there's not reoccurring aspects or nearly permanent aspects of Andreas and Heinrich. It's just that Dharma practice is to notice the momentary appearance as a first priority. That momentary appearance is not graspable.

[75:36]

It's empty of substance. It's entirely a relationship. It's not graspable. and a relationship that's only momentary. And as we talked about the wave returning to silence or to stillness, such a momentary appearance is always dissolving into emptiness. If I keep noticing not permanence, but appearance that dissolves into emptiness, that begins to shape my mind. this mind begins to be shaped by emptiness and instead of being shaped by permanence.

[76:53]

If I'm in the habit of looking for the recurring patterns instead of the momentary appearance, if I get in the habit of looking for recurring patterns, my mind will be shaped by permanence. It will always be looking for permanence. Now my theory is that most artists are trying to recapture enlightenment. Novelists, painters, poets.

[78:02]

And I tend to read with a feeling of, okay, when are they going to tell me about their enlightenment experience? And I'm reading Robert Musil right now, The Man Without Qualities. I think that's a bad translation of the title I'm reading. The Man Without Qualities. And I'm on, I don't know what page, recently I found him describing his enlightenment experience.

[79:05]

And he describes a feeling of inseparability with everything that he was seeing and feeling, the phenomena and the people around him. And Musil is so, I mean, his book is so laden with irony. Yeah, I kind of miss the emotional engagement of Proust. It's another book that takes you months to read. And I read a book like this real slowly, a few pages at a time. Just sort of absorbing who this guy Musil is.

[80:29]

And see, he interrupts the enlightenment experience as he's describing it with a kind of event that happens, running into some policemen and so forth. And he's drunk. But he's describing something that's known in practice that you need to protect this experience for a while until you stabilize it. Also aber beschreibt etwas, was bekannt ist, was er so schützt, bis es stabil genug ist. writing from this experience and coming back to it, poets particularly. And we're doing something the same right here. I'm trying to speak here about a craft of perception, knowing, and so forth.

[81:51]

It's based on an enlightened vision of the world. that's related to the enlightenment experience, but it's also not the same. As the painting of the poetry might be a craft of enlightenment, We're speaking here about a craft of enlightenment. Not relating to writing or painting or something. But how you enter the world, how you enter the interiority of the world.

[83:08]

And one thing is this not perceiving entities or permanence. No, that's wrong. You perceive permanence and entities. But that's not the... But that's... But that doesn't define your perception. What defines your perception is the momentariness. So in a way you said you notice the impermanence but you also notice, oh, it's also sort of permanent.

[84:24]

What's the impermanence of this? Well, it's... It's not complete until I ring it. That's quite impermanent. Yeah. Anyway, we can discuss in many ways our relationship to it and so forth that change moment by moment. This is only a moment. Only a bell through my using it as a bell.

[85:26]

If I don't use it as a bell, I could use it as a teacup. But I guarantee you it makes the tea taste terrible. I tried it. Even makes my hands terrible. And also my hands. So I think I would like to talk a little more, but I'd better stop.

[86:35]

I'm still worried about being too clear. So I'd like to spend a little more time becoming even more clear and see if I can muddle it up too. I'd like to make a nice painting and sort of start erasing it. Then you have to paint it yourself. So at this point, maybe I should stop. And I'll come back to this path of wisdom. And I return to the path of wisdom.

[87:44]

This path of emptiness. So, after we take a break, I'd like you to gather in some sort of small groups. We have enough space around here, I think. And maybe there's 60 people here? Okay, so maybe five, six groups, something like that? I think we can make six groups, maybe two here, one in the kitchen, one in the other room, one in the front room, one in the small kitchen.

[88:46]

Something like that. I'll let you guys decide. And you should have some kind of subject. Perhaps you could see if you can speak about when you yourself have had moments of feeling connected in which the connectedness made you lose connection with your usual sense of self. Other than the experience of falling in love. That's too easy.

[89:57]

You feel like really connected and you've lost some usual habits or something, but something like that without using that example. Okay, that's it. Drugs. Drugs. Drugs. No, drugs. Well, I didn't rule that one out. That is actually one. What we mean by a path of wisdom is not a path to somewhere. We need some word like path act. The path itself is an act. Also wir brauchen ein Wort, wo das ausdrückt, dass der Pfad selber ein Akt, eine Handlung ist.

[91:20]

The path produces, the fruit of the path is wisdom. Also die Frucht des Wegs ist Weisheit. And the expression of the path is wisdom. And the expression of the path is wisdom. Yes, something like that. So if we can get a feeling for this path, the fruit of touching this path can be wisdom. Since it's rather late in the day now, why don't we sit for a little bit and then we'll meet again tomorrow?

[92:14]

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