Now, several people have asked me about how to continue sitting, or how we could practice together more. Occasionally someone asks me how they could be my student or I could be their teacher. Which in some ways is a way of saying, how do we continue to practice together? And also sometimes as a way of intuitively understanding this relationship that's possible between two people.

[01:05]

Which doesn't have to do with personality. But we don't have much experience in the west of this teacher disciple relationship. And for us, it's easily confused with parental relationships or spousal relationships. But in Buddhist cultures, this relationship is so basic But even if you're 80 and there's nobody to be your teacher, you have a teacher who's 30.

[02:34]

It's a more kind of relationship than... easily understood in terms of one person teaching the other. In the most developed sense, it means teacher and student produce the teaching together by the different roles they take. So the student helps by bringing what he or she needs to the teacher. The student teaches the teacher how to teach. And the teacher helps the student recognize it's a hurt on a deep nature.

[03:44]

And some of you I've already accepted as students. Although I haven't told you. And some of you have already accepted me as a teacher, although you haven't told me. Sometimes comes that dangerous, exciting, and difficult moment. Where we dare to admit it. Okay. Now, as I said, some people have asked me how to continue practicing together, or can you sit somewhere in Berlin? And several people, I find out, have intuitively asked Neil.

[05:11]

I don't know why they picked Neil, but maybe because his short hair cut. But anyway, in Berlin here, there's a small sitting group that meets once a week on Sunday. And I think if you're a reasonably nice person, they'd let you join. I think anyone can sit. If you're not nice, we accept you. And I'm meeting, I think, with this group Wednesday evening. This is a way for me, actually, to... understand better how to teach here in Europe.

[06:28]

And there are small city groups like this in several cities. And I often have a feeling, I carry a feeling with me when I'm in the United States these small groups sitting. And some, like this group is sitting Sunday, sometimes I think, oh, Sunday, now they're sitting in Burkina Faso. And I think, oh, no, that was eight hours ago. They were sitting there. And then I try to remember in the middle of the night. So I don't know, you'll have to help me what to do here in Berlin.

[07:35]

Now I've done, given the precepts as a sort of lay initiation into practice. To a number of Europeans when they were in the United States. I think it will be a big step actually when I give to a lay initiation ceremony somewhere in Europe. It's traditionally considered that when you give precepts, it's a very magical moment. And it's said that petals fall from the sky. And the earth trembles.

[08:50]

It may be true if you understand really how everything is changing. So anyway, when I'm here, I'm here. And when I'm not here, I wonder why I'm not here. When I'm here, I'm mostly either in a borrowed guest room or a hotel or a car. And maybe sometime I can find more physical continuity here in Europe. Go ahead. It might be easier for me to find some continuity of practicing.

[09:57]

But the more I feel and you tell me that you are practicing regularly or you started practicing a certain time, that helps me in practicing. Because I really want to practice with you. I find it fun to even find out what your names are. So we have another half hour or so. No, 20 minutes or 15 minutes. Before we take, I think yesterday going to lunch and the length of time it took to serve, get waited on even, takes two hours.

[11:10]

That's how I really noticed that when you go to eat, that everyone is served and my gaze is really two hours on it. So I would like right now to at least hear from a few of you by giving the stick to you. It's very hot and it burns the hands. I know. You say, say something to us. Please. It surprises us that the Chameleon is a master of everything.

[12:18]

Herbman, you know him from the books where he is written on the back page, where he has written a lot. It surprises us that he is a phobos. He is a phobos. When I was somewhat surprised about Venkuvoshi, I somewhat had a different imaginative expectation of what a Zen master would be like. I read most of you, but inside Zen masters, there is an expectation of the halfness. I'm quite surprised at how nice Venkuvoshi is. I gave the stick to the right person.

[13:19]

Yeah, I'm a sort of Zen softie. But sometimes in Sesshin people don't think so. Yeah, just pass it maybe down the front here. You don't have to talk about me, you know, you can talk about whatever. . Jesus is living in you. And if you believe in God, He is living in you. He is living in you.

[14:24]

He is living in you. He is living in you. He is living in you. I used to do meditation on and off, you know, sort of introducing myself to meditation. I made quite a few mistakes. I proceeded to almost be dependent. I had an independence in meditation. So I gave some inspiration. Yeah, one of the qualities of passing the stick around is I don't comment on what people say.

[15:33]

And if you say something that's like a question, I'll try to remember it. And we're speaking with everybody as well as Ulrike and Lasse. And speaking to yourself. And it was difficult for me to talk directly to him.

[16:44]

It was difficult for me to talk directly to him. [...] Helpful. my own language. And then I've been practicing with another teacher, and it didn't get translated, but it was always quite difficult for me.

[17:49]

So, this helps me very much. Also, that I feel very understood, accepted, and respected. Damn it! Damn it! Why? God wants things to come down. Yes. Yes. Well, it's my second time that I've needed to take a question in a seminar, and like beforehand, I have all these questions and problems, and I want to ask you so much.

[19:14]

And at my actual meetings, like being a dentist, it's like everything has disappeared. And I just feel good being here, and well, I know it's the last part of my day at home with all the questions really here. Thank you.

[22:30]

By the way, also with this tradition of passing the stick, you don't have to say anything. You can just hold it, look at it, pass it on. I prefer you to say something. As I said, I like to hear your voice. He talked with me, so I didn't want to walk out of there. I was like, oh, oh, oh. It's good. It's fine. It's good. [...] Thank you.

[24:26]

You're welcome. Thank you. This morning? Or yesterday? What a hamburger part. We have been working with this place for a very long period of time.

[26:07]

We have been working with this place for a long period of time. We have been working with this place for a long period of time. So that is the community I was thinking about. How can you, how can you put that through your system like I was talking about? What is that, what is that thing, what is that thing? Although I didn't realize it, I don't know. I was right. I just, you know, after a while, I told myself that something was wrong.

[27:13]

And I started to do some body work that we should get in real life. It's new, but it's a great way of getting people who, yeah, get lots of all of that. And now I'm back together with me. And it's been a little bit, right, years now that it doesn't break anymore because I don't, I don't think, I did not avoid anything in life by sitting, as I did seven years ago. But now, and my knees get actually annoying, so I think I would sit here and not eat anything. And now I'm very very happy to see you. Thank you. And then he passed away.

[28:50]

And then he passed away. [...] The staff reminds me of the walking stick, like the thought warmers do. And it also reminds me of door echoes, the staff from magicians. And to ever... cares about the hands, it's like it opens the door to that soul. I feel very good being here.

[29:52]

I don't know if there are any questions. I think you've got the answers. I don't know. It was very difficult for me.

[30:54]

I had to go through a lot. It was very hard. I had to go through a lot. It was very hard. I had to go through a lot. I don't know. I don't know. Well, I meditate since two years, but it's more an Indian meditation technique. And I only came here through a very good friend who practices with you since two years. I actually came here with a lot of questions and kind of criticism of that Buddhist, because I feel it's very rigid and kind of almost against human tendencies and so forth.

[31:54]

So lots of questions were actually to challenge them. It somewhat disappears. And I'm quite at ease here now. And I'm also not getting involved with whether I should go on with this or not. It's just at ease and fine. Maybe we should stop now because it's time for lunch. You can pass the sticker. Thank you. Magician's stick. I just remembered the third reason why you sit 30 or 40 minutes. And that's because we don't want to get too attached to the good state of mind of zazen. If you think, oh, this is so good, I want to continue it.

[32:59]

If a little zazen is good, more zazen is better. Absolutely. That's like saying, if one cookie is good, 30 is better. It's not true. And to the extent that you come to some good state of mind in zazen, it's a mistake, actually, to think that's dependent on zazen. So when the bell rings, the clucker clinks. When the clucker clinks, you just get up. and find out how that good state of mind, or whatever that state of mind is, can be continued in walking meditation, or going to lunch, and also at the same time you accept whatever state of mind appears in walking meditation.

[34:36]

Deeper than what state of mind you're in is a state of mind that doesn't compare. If you're going to bring zazen into daily life, this attitude is necessary. Okay, so I'll see you at three o'clock. And you're not going to have a disco here during lunch, are you? So I can leave everything here? Again, please sit comfortably. What happened to my blackboard, my whiteboard?

[36:01]

Can you, we had... We agree. It's a very basic communication. Now, Next step, what can we do about it? Give me some time. I would like to do it. I would like to do it. I would like to do it. Can we call this a workshop next time?

[37:16]

It's okay. We're used to working in emptiness. Hi. Okie dokie. I just had lunch with Sogyal Rinpoche. And that was fun. The last time I had lunch with him at least was in another Chinese restaurant on the moon. Where it seemed like the moon because it was in Lanzarote on an island which was volcanic ash. And somehow, There are always Chinese restaurants when you need them.

[38:38]

Anyway, I like his attitude toward Buddhism and toward practice and the teachings very much. And we agreed discussing it much. That teaching the views or attitudes that embody teaching is the most fundamental. And it's the most important thing to do in the West. And that also relates to this worldview. And that was Suzuki Roshi, my teacher's feeling too, that the basic

[39:42]

teachings are your views and attitudes in your life. A number of people have asked if we might, as some of us, all of us, or whatever, have dinner together tonight after the seminar. And last year and the year before, actually, we did that, and we ate at the Garbano or Garbanzo. Garbanzo? Garbano restaurant, something Gargano, up the street here somewhere.

[41:07]

It's a pretty nice restaurant with good food and a nice, good atmosphere. And I'm Sure, many of you have other things you have to do. But if you'd like to have dinner there, I will have dinner there and anyone who wants to join us can. But we will need to reserve a few tables. And pick a time, maybe 6.30. Can we end at 6? If we end at 6, maybe 6.30 or 6. I guess not everybody has to be there at the same time.

[42:09]

Yeah. So, unless some people have to go home first or something. But in any case, I won't ask you right now, but maybe in half an hour I'll ask you roughly how many people think you'd like to come, because we need to make a reservation for 10 people or 20 people. And I promise not to talk about Buddhism. At least not directly. Okay. Now, since so many people have asked, I think I should say something about the five skandhas. But I'm not going to explain them in any detail. Because the important thing is actually just getting a feeling for it and keeping them in view. So I'm also not going to worry too much about the nuances of translation.

[43:26]

And the first is form. And the second is feelings. The third is usually perception. And the fourth is impulses or associations. This is the life raft of the five skandhas. Okay. Fünfte ist Bewusstsein. Okay, just so you're familiar with the English words at least.

[45:26]

Okay, now they're usually listed in that order, form, feelings, and form is more like signal. Feelings includes dream and imaginal consciousness. And perception is really cognitive consciousness. Comparative and discriminating consciousness. And associations or impulses is more precisely the whole mode of comparative and associative consciousness. And consciousness is there. In that list. Now this again is a map on a cloud. This is just a map.

[46:50]

You can make your own map. But this is a very sophisticated and useful map that has been the background of Asian civilization for some thousands of years. It's permeated the way of seeing things. It's not just Buddhism anymore. Now, there's a reason for it being in this order. But for most of us, it's in this order. Because most of us start out with consciousness. Or you start out with a particular thought or feeling, you see.

[47:54]

Now, when you practice, one of the basic practices is following a thought, feeling, anything identifiable, to its source. I'm so grateful for you. Yeah, and she's taught me a lot about the five skandhas too, because she kept saying some months ago, it doesn't make sense to me. I like it when people tell me if something doesn't make sense. Okay. I didn't use the word vaguely. Yeah.

[49:12]

I feel like I'm underwater and every now and then a recognizable German fish comes by. Looks like an English word. Okay. So in your practice, normally you are noticing something, like a thought. And you notice the thought, when you notice the thought, you see that it actually is in a web of associations. And leads to other associations. And then you see that it actually is your whole state of mind or consciousness. Is that more or less clear? Yes? Yes, no? I'm looking at you. More or less clear? Yeah, okay. So when you sit down to practice, you're usually sitting down somewhere in here.

[50:32]

And in your normal day, you're up in here somewhere. And what you do is you begin to be able to follow a thought to a source or any recognizable mental entity. Because you see it goes different directions. But after a while you get so you can really see the microclimate of a thought. And do you know what I mean by microclimate? Do you have that? Like if you're a gardener again, even one little corner of the garden has a different climate than another corner of the garden. And we tend to live in generalizations. How are you today? I'm fine. I'm pretending to be fine.

[51:59]

But underneath that fine, we're not just telling our friend we're fine. We're also telling ourselves we're fine. Or that we're depressed or something. But within depression, even, there are microclimates. When you first noticed you were depressed, for instance. And all those little microclimates are different. And if you live within generalizations, you really don't have much contact with yourself. So you want to start living within microclimates more. Or feeling the microclimates. I think, for instance, when you first wake up in the morning, as I often say, Don't open your eyes right away.

[53:16]

Because as soon as you open your eyes, you're into the computer screen. Yeah, and all the stuff is... So you don't open your eyes and you let the feeling of your dispersed dream body gather. Then at a certain moment you'll feel gathered. Like we could notice that little pause of silence in the room. You notice that little pause of of silence in yourself. So you feel actually a little pause when your dispersed body is gathered.

[54:23]

And then you open your eyes. That's taking care of yourself. That's not taking care of yourself. So, in English we have the expression getting out of the, waking up or getting up on the right side of the bed. Or we have more often the expression, how are you today? Oh, I got up on the wrong side of the bed. Do you have that expression in German too? Something like that? Well, that means you didn't let your dispersed dream body gather.

[55:24]

So you let yourself gather. And you get so you feel that point and you open your eyes. At that moment you've actually established a microclimate. Which you can walk in the midst of the whole day. And you can get so you can begin to bring one thing after another of your day into that microclimate and expand it. And don't worry if you lose it. For a moment you just bring your mind back to your breath, you can reestablish a microclimate. Do you understand?

[56:29]

Yeah, okay. Each of these are microclimates. So you begin to see what the words emotion, perception, and so forth designate. They are also, your language is also a map on a cloud. And you first better examine the language, the map of German. And if you know English or French, you can begin to see certain subtleties in different territory each language maps.

[57:31]

Because there's no real specific difference between a motion, a feeling, a thought. And what we mean by those words, or similar words, or slightly different words, is different in different languages. For instance, there's certain things, she has a hard time translating into German. And there's certain words I know in Sanskrit or Japanese Buddhism that really, it's very difficult to find any way to put them into Western languages. But this is a kind of metamap. Do you understand a metamap?

[58:45]

A map that covers several languages and many human possibilities. And do you see in this map, the word self does not occur. That everything you see in the world, act on in the world, locate in the world, can be found on this map without the idea of self. So one of the basic practices in Zen, so that you're beginning to work on this side of the person, Is keeping these five skandhas or five aggregates in view. So I would sort of memorize the list in whatever way you can, form, feeling, perception, impulses, consciousness.

[60:15]

And to keep that kind of like you're doing zazen in your uncorrected state of mind and so forth. See, uncorrected state of mind, let me just say, is a very different attitude than purifying your mind. And these two ideas separate their big difference between Buddhist schools. But we say, actually, to see everything as empty is a form of purifying yourself. When you keep seeing everything as changing, you're in a kind of bubble bath of emptiness. So the idea of purification is not absent in Zen Buddhism or tantric Buddhism.

[61:32]

But it's not as definitive an idea or it's embedded in what we treat as a larger idea, an uncorrected state of mind. So the basic view you have, the subtlety of the view you have, the microclimate of the view you have really affects how you practice. So I'm trying to teach you these microclimates. And if you can really catch that microclimate and feel this state of mind or my state of mind within this microclimate, it actually that microclimate becomes a kind of teacher.

[62:38]

And you can return to that microclimate when you need teaching. Now that's not the same as having an inner teacher. For example, if you think If you think we all have an inner teacher, and that inner teacher is teaching us all, if we can listen to it, the truth, that's a form of Christianity. Or some kind of teaching that assumes in a way that the world was created by a God. And so there's some kind of one teaching, one truth. Which, from the point of view of Buddhism, may be a valid religious perspective. Because Buddhism wouldn't say would say it's not true.

[64:11]

Buddhism would say it's probably not true. But Buddhism wouldn't say, but for Buddhism that's like saying German isn't true. Or English isn't true. They're just languages. And Buddhism is a language. And you should choose the spiritual language you want. Because through the spiritual language you choose, you will come to a certain understanding. Because it's not like the language Language leads you to the understanding which is independent of language. Within the language itself is the understanding independent of language.

[65:15]

So what we're trying to do is turn your capacity to have an inner teacher into a Buddhist inner teacher. Because if we awaken your inner teacher, We awaken that inner teacher in a certain way. That inner teacher is going to get up on the right side of the bed or the wrong side of the bed. So we're trying to teach the inner teacher to get up on the Buddhist side of the bed. Nothing wrong with getting up on the Christian side of the bed. That's up to you. Sounds like it's marriage between two religions. You get up on the Christian side, I'll get up on the Buddhist side. Okay. Hmm. I think you feel what I mean.

[66:58]

So we are making this, we're giving form to this inner teaching, inner teaching and inner teacher. Making our access to this inner teacher more and more subtle. Learning how to listen to this inner teacher. And learning how to listen also affects what you hear and so forth. So as much as possible, I'm trying to teach you how to listen. But I'm trying as little as possible to teach you, tell you what to hear. Now many religions try to teach you what to hear. Buddhism teaches you mostly how to listen.

[68:21]

And the five skandhas are part of how to listen. Because you begin to be able to listen to yourself, but you kind of need a map to get out into the territories. So you're trying to get out in the territory through noticing these distinctions of form, feeling, perception. And you're beginning to try to notice the space between these things. You're trying to put some space between these things. Okay, so although you start here usually consciousness is first and that's what you notice first.

[69:32]

While the source of consciousness may be in a particular perception, which leads to another perception and another perception which led to this perception and so forth. Eventually they all trace back to some thing that arose from the phenomenal world. Even if you inherited this feeling which led to this perception from your great grandmother. Your gross motor or some gross motor got it from here. Yes. Okay. So you begin, now each of these things exist in a larger frame this way. Has a horizontal identity, right?

[71:07]

Yeah, okay. And each of them also has a vertical identity. If you trace a moment of consciousness back, it goes back through impulses, perceptions into form. And if you trace a moment of impulse back, it goes back to form and also goes up to here. Now, as you begin to be able to slow this whole process down so it doesn't happen in one 200th of a second. You begin to be able to let consciousness, in a sense, settle into associations.

[72:11]

And associations settle into perceptions, and perceptions settle into feelings, and feelings settle into form. Now let me say that again. Although we usually start with consciousness, When we practice with it, we start with form. So this is the way you usually live and this is the way you practice with it. So you practice in very simple ways. You hear an airplane.

[73:30]

You just hear it. See if you cannot say airplane. And you can experiment with it a little bit. You can think a lot about it. That's the plane from Berlin to Hamburg. You can think that thought. That's a thought. Okay, now you can take that thought away from it and not think it anymore and just hear the sound and say, I don't care whether it's going to Hamburg or whether it's an astral body. You're just hearing it like music of the spheres. That's easy, right?

[74:36]

Do you understand that? You've just changed skandhas. You've gone from a thought skandha into a... I think somewhere in here, a perception. But you haven't made any associations like it's a airplane going to somewhere. And if you cannot even think it's an airplane, but just a sound, then you're somewhere in here between form and feelings. Now this is very useful to do actually. And I would suggest every... Why is it form?

[75:45]

Because what form means in this sense is you're just hearing the sound. You don't even have a feeling about it yet. Okay, so you can practice with this, I would suggest, every morning at breakfast. After Zazen. Of course you've done zazen. Or, of course you've thought about doing zazen. Or at least you've forgotten to do zazen. Okay. And listen, you can do zazen one minute. Just sit for a moment. Okay. Okay.

[76:46]

These are the secret teachings Hotel room teachings The whispered succession at the Hilton Okay, so you just pick a water glass, the flower vase, if there happens to be one. The salt shaker or a piece of cheese. You just see if you can look at it with as much as possible not having any feelings or thoughts about it. This is called bare perception. And then you let, if you can hold it at that spot for a little bit, then let a feeling come in.

[77:56]

And then cheese. I'm hungry. It's all good. It's breakfast time. Where's the coffee? And then back. Just flower. But it's not even a flower. It's some sort of color and light. Now what you do when you do that is you're not actually eliminating these.

[78:57]

You're infusing form with all these others. Yeah. Do you understand? More or less? Less or more? Yeah, sort of? Okay. Okay. It's a little bit like Suzuki Roshi told me when I first started practicing, to put my mind in my hands. As I've told you before, I had no idea what he meant. I imagined some apparitional brain that I kind of... But I discovered, because I didn't know what else to do, that if you just bring your attention to your head,

[80:04]

Your hands begin to warm up.

[80:07]

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