I'm glad to be able to spend this, spend, give, share this one more day with you. And I think, my impression is, so people can leave and drive places, we end about 1 o'clock or 1.15 or 1.30 or something like that. And then we have a piece of cake and a coffee. A good piece of cake? Yeah. Also, mein Gefühl ist, dass wir da ja alle irgendwie noch wecken müssen, oder viele noch wecken müssen, dass wir vielleicht um eins, viertel oder eins, halb zwei... So she has a carrot at the end of it. Do you have that image of a carrot on the end of a string? Yeah, of course. And the rabbit chasing after it.

[01:02]

You get it. Oh, you left? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I think this seminar I did last weekend, maybe the four of you, I guess, who were there, can feel it's part of this weekend's seminar. And now I go, as some of you know, I go to Austria, tomorrow to Vienna, and then to Rastenberg. I guess I'm in some ways an itinerant preacher. I should have a stick with a little pack on the back.

[02:16]

But actually I don't feel it like that. I feel it's just I see so many of the same people in each place. It feels like I'm just continuing my own practice with you in various ways. So I do a seminar like this first in Rosenberg and then five or six days with a group of Austrian psychotherapists I've been meeting with for 14 years or so. And I have a feeling it may be that this topic will probably continue in the next two seminars. It doesn't mean that today I won't try to give some completion

[03:21]

hopefully useful completion to what we've been discussing. But a basic Mahayana idea about teachings is any one teaching includes all the teachings. And this idea of Buddha nature And how it relates to self, soul, spirit, etc. Many people think it's at the center of what will be a long time dialogue between Christianity and Buddhism. And it's certainly an implicit part of It's certainly an explicit part of the implicit dialogue going on all the time with psychotherapy and psychology.

[04:38]

And so as you have done seminars with me before, know that now I'd like to hear from you about the small groups. But I'd also like to hear Anything you want to say about how you understand what we've spoken about so far. So this can be just a big group. And the only rule is that Andreas can't go first. Okay, somebody please. Oh, okay. How? Me, American Indian.

[05:41]

Well, in our group, first we had several examples, like when driving a car, not overtaking because there's some feeling and then there's a crash which would have been... one's own, or being very sure that you can overtake before a car because knowing there is no one coming. We had another example of phoning, getting in contact with a person where there has never been a contact before out of a list of 150 numbers, you know, when someone had died, this number, which had never been dialed before and there was no name, you know, just exactly hitting it. Dial it and it turns out to be right. Yeah. Also knowing when someone was dying. Also when one person being concentrated on a certain piece of music or a certain composer that just appeared anywhere when turning on the TV, when listening to music or even finding a record on the street of this composer, this concentration.

[06:51]

So it's several examples of that. And one person said that this actually can be felt as a feeling of connectedness to that altogether. So that was one part. I'll say it again. We had various examples about... It was about driving or something like that. About driving a car, knowing when you can overtake, not such a certainty in it, when it crashes or... That you, when someone has died, are reached by the relatives, although there has never been a contact before and no name is there in the phone book or something like that. So actually find and make contact. Or when someone... with a certain composer, wherever he is, even if he never turns on the TV, he turns it on and finds a record lying in front of him on the street. So a whole series of examples. One said that there is a feeling of connection behind it, that you can recognize it.

[07:55]

Would you say that the examples were characterized by being highly intense situations, something, somebody's dying or something you have to do, or were some just sort of ordinary? No, they were intense examples and also the feeling seemed to be that surety about it, about the situation, you know, just this is right, nothing else. Thanks. Okay, someone else? It's hard to count, I think.

[09:17]

It's hard to count, isn't it? Yesterday, I also noticed something about our group. Someone said that he or she has a more gentle feeling, or she has a feeling in her age, tries to practice that, and often notices what people strive for, what people need and need. Another example that came to me, which I found remarkable, is a person said in everyday life, this is sort of a, she has often sort of a soft feeling, just knowing exactly what other people need. Of what she selber braucht. Niemand anders sagte. Ja, man hat das gespürt. Was braucht er denn selber? Und hat plötzlich die Idee, ich brauche irgendeinen bestimmten Tee und... And also having a safe feeling of knowing what she herself needs, you know, some certain special medicine which turns out to be exactly that which had been necessary. Another point that was not quite clear to us in the group was whether it falls in the area of intuition.

[10:35]

For example, I often go into a room or meet someone and immediately know whether I feel comfortable, what kind of mood it is, whether someone is sympathetic to me or not, without thinking about it. It just follows. I notice it immediately. And for myself, there's this example of, for example, coming into a room without thinking of anything, just knowing exactly this, am I right here? Is this agreeable with that person which is in the room? And thinking comes later than only. So being sure about that too. My question was, is that intuition? And my question was, personally, is that more non-conscious thinking? I'd say non-conscious thinking. I actually rarely use the word intuition unless I'm

[11:38]

I have to. Okay. Why isn't everyone as brave as Andreas? In Zen, if this is a real traditional Zen place, the teacher would pick the one who most doesn't want to speak. But I can already feel there's several of you here. Yes, in our group I told my own example. I had some very important experience and this had to do with a lot of trust.

[12:41]

And out of this trust, in some way I know that I will find my way and I don't really have to decide. I just can rely on trusting in some kind of way. And out of this, the intuition, it is a kind of intuition, and this is very deeply connected for me with trusting. And so we spoke about, we focused more on this subject and spoke about decisions in our life, how difficult it is in some times, and sometimes... we are quite different. Some people don't have this trust. In my example it was just because I made a very fundamental decision, a kind of vow, when I was sixteen, and this brought some kind of feeling with me, that kind of connectedness, and that really determined my further life.

[13:49]

And so this For me it was relatively easy to have this certainty and to have this intuition, even in difficult situations. Yeah, next. I brought the example from my own experience when I was 16, where I was in such a difficult situation, and I had then made such a deep decision for myself, and that led to almost a kind of praise, actually, and that led to such a kind of experience that changed my life quite a bit. It was a kind of feeling of happiness that somehow penetrated into me. And from this feeling, which has a lot to do with trust, came a kind of intuition, which in many situations

[14:52]

and that's why for me intuition has to do with a kind of deep trust, where I can rely on the fact that it always comes. We talked about the fact that it's not always the same for us, and some people don't like it that much, Yes, I mean, how can you get there? That's what we talked about. How can you perhaps deal with it? And this connection of intuition, what do you do now, with trust? That was the important point for us. Yes? I have given an example in Europe, which concerns me a lot. I wait in many areas of life for intuition, even as a child.

[15:54]

Certain tasks or certain things, I had the experience, when I do it at the wrong time, it is very exhausting and does not work. And then I learned, I wait now until the right waves come and then I do it. For example, now we need a drummer for our band and I have to do it and no one else does it. And I haven't been doing it for half a year and I'm dissatisfied with it again. I know that if I do it now, if I open an ad, nothing will come out anyway. And there are many things in life, both in work and in my private life, and I've been waiting forever for the intuition to come. And what can I do not to be dissatisfied in the meantime? For me it was, since I was quite young, I always waited for the intuition because I found out that doing a decision at the wrong time makes much trouble and much exhaustion and so on.

[17:03]

So there's now often the situation, like for example, I'm looking for a drummer for our band. don't do anything then just wait and wait and wait and now it's about half a year and sort of fill in the time somehow but I know I just wait for the intuition that has been successful in very many events mostly I'm sorry I'm not a drummer Julio I have a question about the... I'm fascinated with what you said, great function. Very fascinating. I think I experience it, but it's not... my will doesn't enter into it. And I realized in the practice that My culture told me many lies about the relationship of body, creativity, and mind. Because it always told me the story that the body contains it.

[18:07]

Inside there's the brain and the heart and the creativity. And I realized when I tried to force the great functioning, I actually operate in my culture. Because I stand there and I say, OK, how does my stomach feel? What does my heart say? Stuff like that. And it never works. and the instances where it actually works, I have a different, the body and there's no, there's like a oneness. And I never, I never have, actually a memory of what was operating. It's just, it happens, and I can never go back and say, oh, you know, I had a feeling there. It just happened. And I would be interested, because I think it has about... The point is about that the body is not... is located in the self instead of the self in the body. And I would like to know what you were thinking about that. Deutsch, bitte.

[19:09]

And the great functioning of which Richard spoke yesterday fascinated me very much. I have noticed in practice that Western culture always refers to the brain and creativity and the heart as the inner body. That is the image of my culture. That is in the moment when I I want to have this intuition and deal with it with this picture, it just doesn't work at all. That this moment comes to me, and I don't have the feeling in different parts, like a body with a heart or an intuition, but that I don't even have any memory of what actually happened. I only know that it happened. I would be interested, like from Richard, Well, perhaps before we finish, I can perhaps say something about this. But just let me speak phenomenologically now.

[20:16]

A condition of practice, and it would be the condition for anybody, practicing or not. In this sense, what we mean by practice in Zen, only increases your possibility to notice things and act on them. But we all have the opportunity to notice things and act on them. So if you notice that in certain situations you seem to act in a way that you are calling great functioning, And um, And this is satisfying or it's something that feels right to you.

[21:39]

You simply try to notice, as I said phenomenologically, what happens when this occurs. What's going on? And you try to, I mean, the main trick in Yogacara teaching is to find the bodily sensation which seems to be present and tie the context of the complex situation together. And the more you can notice that, and trust it, I think Eric's sense of trusting is... essential in all this stuff.

[22:47]

It's one of the reasons precepts are part of the door of practice. Because if you don't feel good about your actions and complete in your actions, there's a conflict set up and it blocks any subtle activity. So the precepts from this way of thinking are not just morality. It's good to be that way. But they're fundamental principles. part of how we function as a whole being. So if you can notice what's at the center of this experience and not try to

[23:48]

Not try to will it or too strongly try to make it happen. But rather be open to the situation and open to the conditions. You then move into the situation or let it happen. And I can repeat this famous koan of... from the Shoyuroku. Which is a monk asked Dung Shan. I think it's number 98. Among the three bodies of the Buddha. Mm-hmm. Which one does not fall into any category?

[25:16]

Okay, so the question is something like this. How do you act in a situation which is actually so subtle it doesn't fall into any category? And the three bodies of Buddha, I'll just say this for some of you who are interested, the Dharmakaya, the Sambhogakaya and the Nirmanakaya, are ways of understanding, among other things, how to unfold what I spoke about yesterday, the tathagatagarbha. Now, for those of you who are practicing again, you know, regularly, It becomes useful to actually know some of these terms like Tathagatagarbha and three bodies, etc.

[26:28]

Not in a scholarly way, but just because they can function in our own functioning. So he's asked, which body does not fall into any categories? And he answered, I'm always close to this. And so that can be taken as a gate phrase or a mantra-like phrase. And if you can use it with this feeling, I'm always close to this. You can't get hold of it, but you're close to it. So that sense can be can be present in whatever you're doing.

[27:35]

Yeah, it can be part of an intention. Like you might have an intention to be closer to this, but the intention can also be within the feeling of I'm always close to this. And what I just said, I'll just use it as an opportunity to say this, I guess. Much of the... 60, 90 percent of the territory of your practice. It's not going to be the teachings of sutras or me or some other source. It's going to be your ability to notice your own experience.

[28:36]

and begin to act in it a way that's satisfying, nourishing, etc. Yeah, so this that you've noticed, the craft of practice now is to continue to notice, to continue to act within it. But as much as possible without any self in it. The more you make it part of your self-narration, your story, you lose the ability, you lose the capacity. It doesn't mean one part of you can't say, oh, I'm Julio and I can do this, that's all right. But if that's just a little habit, that's all right.

[29:44]

But it's basically, it's much bigger than any idea of self or a particular person. Yeah. Okay. Good enough for now? Yes. I also have a question. When I use it for the first time, it is a physical experience for me. And when I continue with it for weeks, it is just a thought. A thought, yes. A thought. Just a thought, and this physical experience is no longer there, which I had for the first time. For me, it's when I use gait phrases. When I first use them, there's a bodily feeling to it. And then when I continue with it, over the weeks, it turns into a thought, rather.

[31:04]

Okay. Yesterday I also tried it with breathing. When I sit here on my pillow and breathe, is it a physical feeling or does the state change? And when I go out into the world and I go for a walk in the garden, I tried to observe my breathing and I realized, yes, I consciously observe that I am breathing, but it doesn't change anything because I don't have a physical feeling. And then it's so like yesterday, for example, when I'm sitting here and I breathe, there's the bodily feeling of breathing there. But when I go out into the world, in a park for example, I watch my breathing, but eventually the bodily feeling disappears, is no longer there. How do I achieve this? When I am in the world, I can only achieve this in a mental way, but I cannot connect to this body.

[32:10]

And now my question is, how do I get to do this? When I'm in the world, this is more or only a mental thing for me, how can I sort of get to this bodily, physical feeling again or hold it? Again, we're speaking about the crafter practice. And it's, of course, whatever you do is going to take various forms. And sometimes it's going to be richer or stronger and sometimes weaker and not so fruitful. And these are just things we notice. And we have to find out ways to refresh ourselves. But just the fact that you notice things Notice what's happening.

[33:23]

The way you're describing to me means that you have the capacity, the territory, that allows you to practice. Some people can't notice their own experience. It's almost impossible from the practice. And with any continuity. So just this noticing is already a fruit of practice. Or the activity of the practice. Okay. Now, naturally we have to refresh ourselves in these practices. And when we first start the... And it's a skill, it's a skill to learn how to use gate phrases.

[34:26]

In my own experience, I had to use gate phrases, one phrase for sometimes a year, year and a half before eventually I could use gate phrases. gatephrase very quickly in the afternoon or an hour. And when you first start using gatephrases, We naturally have a habit of turning things into mental reflection. And that takes it away from our body. It takes it away from having any power. And then after becoming reflective thinking it starts being self-reflective thinking. I'm not good at this or something.

[35:37]

And then sometimes you can think of the ego as a kind of bully. Hey, you're getting good at this. I'm going to take that phrase away from you and make it, weaken it. But it's also the case that sometimes when a phrase changes into, yes, thinking, It may be a process of it getting deeper or changing into another phrase. And sometimes it appears in thinking and changes into another form in your thinking, and then you can bring that new phrase back into your body.

[36:42]

So this way of working with a phrase or an intention and intentions are the most powerful thing we can bring into our life is a gift, a craft that I can tell you something about Mostly you have to learn it yourself by doing it. Okay. Isn't this fun what we're doing? Or serious? I would like to come back to the theme of intuition also from our group yesterday. The question was, where does this intuition come from?

[37:45]

What is the source of it? And the other thought was there is something predispositioned where intuition leads us to. From my personal understanding and view of Buddhism, it isn't like that, that intuition leads us to somewhere which is already there. The fact that some people in your group or you have had the experience that intuition leads you somewhere that's already there is not the way you think Buddhism works. I am of the opinion that this is not predetermined, but that it simply arises in the situation because a certain constellation is there.

[38:55]

And then a situation arises where a security or a danger is to make a decision that can be a difficult one, but also a very trivial one, like buying a piece of clothing. I think this for me it's more like this is a matter of constellation of things coming together and then being sort of sure which decision to make may it be a serious decision or even sort of light decision like buying a piece of shirt or cloth or so right Is there a question in there? Okay. Is there a realm where intuition sort of starts or comes into being or is there a source? Well, I think we can understand Dogen's famous phrase, think non-thinking here.

[40:05]

Because in this enfoldedness of awareness, in its working thusness with the enfoldedness of the world, It's a kind of work... I use the word working thusness. It's a kind of working thusness. And we can say it's a kind of non-thinking because it produces results that are like thinking, but we can't call it the thinking of thoughts. It is a way of... And that appears in our mind as thinking. Yeah, or as intuition. Now, if you are not … if you're not …

[41:24]

engaged in self-reflective thinking, then it doesn't appear as thinking so much, but as a kind of knowing, a kind of series of insights or knowledge. something unique. You hadn't noticed before or hadn't thought before, but it appears as an image or as a thought, but it's not exactly discursive thinking for sure. Okay. My experience is when I have to make a decision which I can't do on a rational basis.

[42:36]

Then it is so that when I sit, I put it somewhere with me in this sitting, without me now sitting somewhere during the sitting, really to occupy me, to lead a dialogue in the sense of a dialogue. I take it into my sitting then, just take it in, but not as an argument, but not leading a dialogue. After a time, there comes a decision how to do this and that. It comes the result of having to do this and that in that way. But it's not so causal that I know if I take it into my sitting, then this will occur or happen.

[43:54]

You can't predict it, but it might make it more fruitful. Yeah, exactly. Listening to you just reminded me, the first time I actually used a phrase like this was long before I started practicing Buddhism. And I think we should have a break in a minute, so I can tell you an anecdote. I was in college, but I was working in the summer as a waiter on Cape Cod. And it's for some reason when you've worked with a phrase or done something was a turning point, like your vow when you were sixteen. There's a vividness to the physical situation in which you were Thinking about it, or it happened to you.

[45:03]

So I was in the lower bunk of a rather saggy army type bed. I had no idea why it occurred to me. But, you know, I was working in this... After my first year of college, I was working in this restaurant. Actually, excuse me, second year of college. I was working in this different restaurant in the same place. And suddenly it occurred to me, I'm an American. You might have noticed that. Am I a typical American? I don't know. Anyway, I thought, I'm an American. What the heck does it mean to be an American? And I thought, I don't know what it means to be an American. Then I kept asking myself... What does it mean to say I'm an American?

[46:14]

And I woke up and went to bed with this question for several days. And I, one morning I woke up and the question was gone. And I was no longer an American and no longer anything. But I seemed to be what I was doing. Anyway, that was a kind of step, I think, toward my Zen practice. So let's have a break now. Thanks a lot. I get so tired of all these American people saying, America, this drives me nuts. But I would like you to all take the phrase, the gate phrase, I am an American.

[47:20]

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