You know, I started a debate with Katrin and Nicole, our co-directors. Sort of co-directors. Yeah. So about what the format of this week, five-day seminar ought to be. At some point, I guess it started to be modeled on what we do in the winter branches. Which is what we're doing now, a taste show, a lecture or something like that, in the morning of somewhere between 40 minutes and three hours, no, no, an hour. and then a discussion in the afternoon among yourselves and then with me okay now I'm discussing this not I'm discussing this because this is how we spend our time together and I'm trying to

[01:22]

maybe develop, change the way we spend our time together. So, at first I thought, well, let's go back to the way it was, which is before the winter branches, this was just like a regular seminar and I would talk endlessly. I mean, that's one way to look at it. And although it's not something, let's just take Dogen for example, or Yuan Wu, not something Dogen ever did. Dogen gave, we know quite a bit about what he did and what his daily schedule was like.

[02:44]

Weekly, monthly. And as I said the other day, in the weekend seminar, he gave sometimes little short talks, you know, two or three sentences. Sometimes, I mean, sort of like I sometimes, during Zazen, speak for a few sentences. And what my remark that He likes that because it's something hopefully rather pithy. Like short? Pithy means sort of to the point. Okay, like poignant?

[03:54]

Poignant? Yeah. No, it might be pithy and poignant, but that's different. Okay, but I understand. Pithy means has some ingredients but is just to the point, short. Okay. And Ottmar hat angemerkt, dass er das gern mag, weil er hofft dann, oder das kann oftmals etwas ganz Pregnantes sein. Pregnant? Yes. That's what I'm trying to do with all of you, get you darmically in vitro. No, I don't know why. But then after this weekend seminar and a few comments about how much I talked, And then I heard some people wanted me to continue like it was the regular seminar, and some people wanted me to go, as we're doing now, into the winter branches format.

[05:04]

The weekend format, which I've been doing, and then I added the Friday prologue day for those who can come, Far as I know, it doesn't exist in the 2,500-year-old tradition. Our weekend seminars are based on a seven-day week, which nobody had until Christianity appeared in Asia. And the weekend seminars are based on our work schedule and the fact that there's all these therapeutic seminars that are done, especially in Europe, more than in the United States.

[06:27]

So then I fell into that pattern because people were available on weekends. So I said, okay, I'll do a seminar or whatever we call it. And in America, almost all my lectures were just 40 minutes or so. As were Suzuki Yoshis. He never took a whole day and just... And also, because of Tassajara, I mostly had an initiated audience of people who'd been at Tassajara two years, five years and longer.

[07:42]

So what happened here with starting to teach in Europe without an initiated audience I began to try to in two days Saturday and Sunday. See if I could introduce something from enough points of view that it began to work in you when the rest of the year. zu schauen, ob ich in dieser Zeitspanne etwas von ausreichend vielen Perspektiven einflößen konnte, euch einflößen konnte, sodass das dann das Ja über in euch arbeitet.

[09:00]

That's what Otmar, well, Otmar went to talk to Creston a lot. Und Otmar ist viel in Creston gewesen. But, for example, that's most of your dharmic experience is weekend seminars, Neal. And I think they weren't entirely a waste of time. And it's interesting, because if I have to sit down here and we have two-hour sessions in the morning and two-hour sessions in the afternoon, And as much discussion as I can squeeze out of you, I mean, that you offer. So that's four times three, twelve hours. Two, four, six, eight, ten.

[10:12]

Ten to twelve hours I have to sort of make something happen. That's a lot of... I don't know. I have no idea how I've done it. Over and over again. And it's kind of interesting and probably should continue to some extent because I have to find resources to keep turning the topic in a new light. But maybe your practice is mature enough now just to deal with one-line lectures. That's where we'll start this morning. I mean, I already ruined it. So I have to explore what to do.

[11:14]

So since this weekend type two or three day seminar has been part of our practice, I think we should continue at least for a while. So I'm bringing this up because I really would like some feedback from you guys. Guys, gals, I mean, to me you're all guys, I guess. In English it has come to mean both genders. Whether like the weekend, some of you, quite a few of you have been at the weekend seminar and now in this. Maybe they both work for you, but then I'd like to know in what way they work, both work.

[12:17]

Vielleicht funktionieren die beide für euch, aber dann würde ich gerne wissen, auf welche Art und Weise die beide funktionieren. And I want to try something else this afternoon. Und heute Nachmittag möchte ich etwas anderes ausprobieren. And the practical reason is, it's my daughter's 14th birthday today. And when I was working on the... schedule for this year for Johanneshof Quellenweg. I said to Nicole, maybe we'll just celebrate Sophia's birthday on the weekend. That's more convenient. And she not so long ago being more of a daughter than a director.

[13:40]

She said, my daughterly advice is to do it on her birthday because, you know, It's not on my schedule, it's her schedule. Okay. So, what I want to do this afternoon is, forgive me, leave and come back in the evening. And we'll have a little two-hour birthday party with my daughter by Bodensee. But what I'd like to do today and use this opportunity, I don't think I'll continue, tomorrow and the next day, but still I want to explore.

[14:51]

This morning I want to talk about categories and distinctions. Heute Nachmittag möchte ich über Kategorien und Unterscheidungen sprechen. In certain... Wait. This morning. Heute Morgen, ja. Now we're good. Heute Morgen möchte ich über Kategorien und Unterscheidungen... Okay. Because some distinctions allow one to open into practice in a new way when you make the distinction. Weil es einige Unterscheidungen gibt, die es einem gestatten, die Praxis auf eine neue Art und Weise zu öffnen. Yeah, and your practice is getting so mature, I think you don't just have small groups and discuss things, you can start helping me teach. So my idea is that in the first discussion in the afternoon maybe three or four residents

[15:54]

dass da vielleicht drei oder vier von den Hausbewohnern, maybe Katrin and Nicole and Otmar and Dieter, vielleicht Katrin und Nicole und Otmar und Dieter, could have a discussion that have shifted their practice. Und vielleicht können die Entscheidungen in die Diskussion die ihre Therapeutin geändert haben. And Yeah, one or two. And I'll tell you what I mean by that. And then in the second group, I usually attend and I usually participate. These have a trio of sets from the Wither Saga.

[17:14]

They do the same thing, bringing up the stuff they do to them. So, maybe that text shied Gera here out. She's willing. Neil and Gunda sticks out to Gunda. speech, and Gerhard, wouldn't we know? And then, what distinctions noticing slurring? No. No. Okay. The idea of trend is very interesting.

[18:16]

Why do we make categories? And are they real? So, there's our... Okay. The idea of... Constant temptation means three bodies which are actually one body. Drei-falsigkeit? Drei-falsigkeit, okay. This is God. I'm, well, let's call him on Wu, whatever it is. I'll know parents. I'll know parents. Because we don't know not to, but that's correct these days. I'm pregnant these days. I'm pregnant. This and that and so on. I'm pregnant. [...]

[19:19]

I'm pregnant. So prodigy. Every chip sends their progeny. Prodigy. What I'd like to say is that these are categories. because don't they say that what something When you're baptized by the holy baptismal Christ, that would be a Rick Ficks thing here.

[20:33]

Yeah, and so... In Buddhism, there are also three Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha. And they are comparable in many ways. They are explicitly categorized. What I do in Europe and in the United States is to create the opportunities to create the categories that are part of our linear gamut. So we can say, that category is generational teaching.

[21:50]

You know, I've been doing this longer, too, and I think so. And I have, and with Sukershi, I have generational with you in passing the teaching. Generate. But these three refugees, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha are equal. So Dharma is equal. equally the teacher as Sangha is equally the teacher. So this is what I, you know, if this lineage teaching is going to survive in the West, as you hear me say all the time, particularly in a lay context,

[22:53]

We still have to approach, try to make these three function in a pedagogical way. Okay, so... The first is clear, the generational field or context of teaching. And the second is phenomenal, the dharmic field of teaching. And that's a little harder for us to grasp in the West because we don't think of things, physical things, or the flow of activity as teaching us.

[23:56]

But clearly what we're doing here is trying to, again, trying to repeat myself as little as possible, look at how the little acts of bowing at your cushion and so forth are all part of the practice of appearance. And the orioke practice, which we're doing in the mornings and evenings here. And we decided to try having a table lunch in the noontime. Okay, the Oryoki practice is meant to be a practice of appearance.

[25:06]

Each thing you do, take your spoon out, take the regular Oryoki, take the gohashi, the chopsticks out. Everything requires attention. The cloth bag has to be opened a certain way, and then you have to fold it back. accordion style. So each item you relate to with both hands and you relate to it as an activity. And you relate to the Buddha bowl.

[26:13]

We call it the Buddha bowl because it represents Buddha's skull as a bowl. Yeah. Yeah. And each thing you pick up, usually I mean there's no handles on the cups or bowls. They require attention. And you bring them into the field of the body. Because the field of the body in a yoga culture, in Zen, is already space you've generated. And every object arises in the mind and in the sensorial field.

[27:14]

So the Oryoki meal is meant to develop a continuous, uninterrupted attentional field. It arises with each object. Und das mit jedem Gegenstand erscheint. And you accentuate that by bringing it into the center of the field of the body. Und das du betonst, indem du es in das Zentrum des Körperfeldes hineinbringst. As this stick represents a back scratcher. Nobody washed and it was itchy and there were flies. You scratched your back. But it also represents the spine. And this, the crown chakra. So when I hold this, I'm holding it in relationship to my spine and with the feeling of awakening through my spine as I'm talking.

[28:55]

So that's part of the using physical objects as part of the dharmic field of the appearance of mind and objects. No, you will have to repeat that. Of using physical objects as part of the dharmic field of mind and senses. And that it's attentionally demanding enough that it's not A time when you can have small talk or smoke a cigarette in between the bowls or something like that.

[30:04]

So I'm not saying we all want to eat that way every day with everyone we know in each restaurant. Please bring me all my food in an Oryoki. But this is a classic yogic Zen practice. That asks us to develop an inner attentional field. And get a feel for it. And then be able to know the physical feel of the person. of the attentional field of the oriochi practice.

[31:10]

Because that attentional field is something different than consciousness. And the other day I saw the word introspection. And some Western neurologist or somebody, I think, talking about paying attention to your inner processes. And I thought to myself, in all these years, 50-some years of practicing and teaching Buddhism, I've never used the word introspection. And I thought, what?

[32:12]

Why have I never used it? Maybe I should start using it. No, no, I can't use that word. Now, this is a distinction that may not work in German, I don't know, but in English... Vielleicht funktioniert diese Unterscheidung im Deutschen nicht, aber im Englischen. But introspection in English means to look at your interior processes from the outside and in reference to the outside. Aber dieses Wort introspektion bedeutet, dass man seine inneren Prozesse betrachtet, aber von außen her und in Beziehung zu den äußeren Prozessen. In relationship to the outside. And in relationship to consciousness and the outside.

[33:13]

And that's not what an inner attentional field is. So that's the kind of distinction I'm talking about. I remember and I mentioned the other day that in the 60s when I first started practicing I noticed that I began to know I was going to do something before consciously I decided to do it. Yeah, and I mean in simple ways I began to notice that I knew in advance before I consciously decided. I mean, simple things like maybe I put my coat where, if I'm at somebody's house, where I can get it quickly to leave.

[34:23]

So I had no conscious intention to leave early from the party or whatever it was. But actually I already knew I was going to leave and I put my coat so I could leave. So more and more I've discovered that I had through Zazen developed an inner attentional body That was making decisions before my outer attentional body. Now, Gerald, in the earlier seminar, I brought up the idea of a Buddha body. What the heck is that? Now, I would distinguish in English at least between a Buddha body and a Buddha nature.

[36:00]

Nature means something you're born with. Yeah. In English it does. I'm not entirely sure that that's... But why not? Buddha-natura bedeutet etwas, womit du geboren bist. I think, yeah, that works. Okay. So Buddha-nature has the idea of something inherent. But Buddha-body does not. So I recognized that I was beginning to... have a sense of an inner attentional body, a zazen body maybe, that was not the same as my outer attentional body. And that was in, you know, 62 or 63 or so I noticed it.

[37:02]

And I've spent all the years since trying to seeing how the inner attentional body is engaged with the outer attentional body and how they can function together. And I could say for the sake of conversation now that in realization experiences I discovered that the inner attentional body took over. Yes, so that, so the And this inner attentional body is something like a Buddha body that develops differently than your outer, more psychologically shaped body.

[38:39]

Yeah, and Atmar brought up the idea of the distinction between the mind The empty mind of no car. And the mind in which there's really no car because it's been stolen. Or it's gone. And I've been wondering how to speak to that. And I think probably simplest is Herman Rorschach's 1921 test. And I think the easiest is the test that Hermann Rorschach developed in 1921. It's the Rorschach test.

[39:41]

You don't know what the ink blots are. They may look like something, they may not. But the ingredients are all there. The association to make it look like something is not there. So in the empty mind of no entity-ness, it's more like, yeah, the units of perception are there, they're just not put together as a car. And there's no looking to link things together. But when Marie-Louise's car was stolen in Rostock, We were definitely looking for the associations of the car.

[40:57]

So the mind was making associations and the other mind is withdrawing from associations. This isn't... the entirety of an explanation, but it is in the direction of you can feel the difference. So also we've talked about the difference between Knowing things as activities and knowing things as entities. And we could say one is the continuous container mind of entities. But when you see all entities as activities, not only the object is the result of activities,

[42:12]

But the sensorial and mental perception is an activity of mind and senses. The sensorial and mental mind So one is a pulse of appearance as activities. And the other is a continuity of out there. And it's perfectly obvious to us A mature practitioner. When someone's walking around in what they know as a continuity of entities.

[43:26]

An out there container which exists separate from them. And a mature practitioner, just look at them, you can see each moment they're creating their situation. Each step is a stepping and a flooring. So that at each moment you're in a sensorial and attentional pulse. And it's interesting, it's a constant feeling of belonging, no alienation, belonging because you're creating, and a kind of field of creative uniqueness.

[45:07]

So you're moving in an activity-defined attentional field. Also bewegst du dich in einem aktivitätsdefinierten Aufmerksamkeitsfeld. Not only because such a field is much more free of mental suffering or anxiety, etc., But also because it's really close to how things actually exist. So these things are from everything I know it's simply more satisfying. Yeah. Okay. And then there's Tension flowing in the spine or tension inseparable from the breath.

[46:23]

All these are just shifts I'm happening to mention this morning. But when you begin to approach them There's already a difference. And then when you go past them, you're in a kind of different world where practice begins to happen. Yeah, okay. Well, that's what I just said today. It could have been a little more simple, clearer. I want to end every lecture with, I promise to improve.

[47:27]

But I don't say that because I know I can't keep the promise. But thank you very much. with our intention to pass through everywhere in the same way.

[47:52]

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