So again these ideas of consciousness, karma and perception are central to Buddhism but also central to our human existence. I think you could say that they're at the very depths of culture and individual life and very, very difficult to study. In other words, if we, during this weekend, can come to any real sense of these terms, In our experience, we'll be doing what every philosopher is trying to do or trying to touch. And for me too, I have to, with you, try to find out with you how to talk about these things or get a feeling for them.

[01:32]

It's a little bit like asking the film of a camera and the film only knows doesn't even know what the film is barely to ask the film what the camera is and the film doesn't know what the camera is the film just receives these images But what organizes these images into the film, the film doesn't know, it's just images appear on it. And our consciousness is like that. Images appear in our consciousness, but we have very little idea of what the camera is that got them there.

[02:33]

So Buddhism has tried to study what the camera is that brings your consciousness into consciousness. Buddhism has now tried to find out what this camera is that brings consciousness into consciousness or that brings the world into consciousness. Now the initial perception I have, say, of Tina, if I can use you as an example, the initial perception is one thing, but if I'm going to think about Tina and all of you,

[03:46]

I have to hold the image of Tina in my mind, which is not the same as the initial perception. But how do I hold, by what means do I hold the perception of Tina in my mind? And then unify it with the perception of all of you. and make a decision. So there's some structure to consciousness that does that after the initial perception. The initial perception doesn't tell me much, but consciousness, the structure of consciousness, actually puts it together. Okay, so there are many initial perceptions. And how do I, what happens to those perceptions once I perceive them?

[05:06]

And then how do I associate them with other perceptions? And then how do I hold those perceptions in a unity? How do I create a unity of these perceptions? And then a unity from which I can make decisions and judgments. And then have that not just a personal world but a world which also coincides with your world. How is the film going to know all this? It's really quite difficult. And the decision that's made The way you see it affects the way you function as an individual.

[06:26]

In other words, as I said the other day, the way you study the self affects what self you discover. If I study myself through you and then I study myself through you I'll discover two different selves. You know that to be true from your friends. So if I study my existence or self through zazen, I'm going to discover a different self than if I study it through my activity or western psychology, etc.

[07:36]

In other words, the process of consciousness determines consciousness. We could even say the process of self determines self. Gregory Bateson, a pretty famous philosopher and biologist, I believe he said, the nervous system gives us information about products, not about processes. So the nervous system tells us about products but not about the process by which the products appeared.

[08:43]

Or usually consciousness tells us about the contents or the representations in consciousness. but it doesn't tell us about the process by which those re-presentations or appearances came about. Okay. Now, vipassana meditation is really a study of the processes of consciousness, not the products of consciousness. Okay. Now let me shift the topic a moment. You could describe the current... crisis that we have in the world with the biological environment is that the political and economic and social histories of cultures

[10:14]

have very little history or knowledge or understanding of the biological environment. Now, that doesn't mean we are unnatural. As I have often said, Berlin is as natural as an anthill. Ants build ant hills and human beings build cities. They're natural. So the question is not whether we're natural or unnatural but how does something exist in our history? Now, there's a kind of membrane between us and the biological environment.

[11:30]

Political and cultural history affects the nature of that membrane. now in some senses we could call that membrane a cultural mind or a cultural consciousness because our consciousness our cultural consciousness let's say again doesn't include much about the biological environment Now what Greenpeace and various organizations and lots of the Greens Party in Germany and so forth are trying to get our cultures and us individually to see where this border is. And it's very difficult to do.

[12:46]

Okay. Now, do you know, do you know, is it kind of newspaper knowledge about the Star Wars business in the United States? Yes? Yes. See, I don't have to explain what Star Wars was up here. When Star Wars first appeared, most of the peace activists and most of the liberals in the United States were completely opposed to Star Wars. Because it won't work. I mean, it's almost sure not to work. And what they were studying was the contents of Star Wars won't work.

[13:48]

But if you looked at it from another point of view, it was clear that Star Wars meant nuclear weapons were finished. So really the peace activists, although their job is to oppose it, they probably should have also supported it. Because what Star Wars represents is the recognition that massive retaliation doesn't work. You know, it's called in English, mad. Mutual assured destruction. So once Reagan and the government of the United States at that point intuitively or consciously understood that massive retaliation wouldn't work, they had to make a shift in thinking away from massive retaliation.

[15:15]

So the shift was to this idea of Star Wars. Instead of to massively retaliate, to protect yourself. Instead of to massively retaliate, to protect yourself. So that's a shift again from a dependence or belief in nuclear weapons. It's a shift away from a belief in nuclear weapons. But the content is entirely based on nuclear weapons. And it's a shift away from military strength to scientific strength. You make such a major shift in the way people think.

[16:30]

You have to retain the content of the old thinking. If you don't retain the content of the old thinking, no one will agree with you. So when you make a major shift in consciousness and like that, an attitude, it has to look like it's completely based on the old thinking. But I think if you could look with the eye backwards, as soon as Star Wars appeared, we knew the wall was coming down. How do you notice those things in your own thinking? How do you notice when you have already made a major shift in your life but the content of your life is even more the way it was before?

[17:40]

How does Greenpeace and other environmental organizations work with the content of the old to make us include the biological environment in our thinking. Now, I present that problem to you because I think it's easier to see it in cultural terms than to see it in personal, psychological terms. And I also present it to you because our individual karma is deeply involved with the collective and societal karma. And if we are going to, let's just say, save our planet, because Gaia, this idea of Gaia, the planet is a living being, if our addictions to energy use and so forth are as serious as they are, continue to be as like they are,

[19:02]

The redundant immune system of this living being of the planet could collapse. But we have to change the mind of society to do that. Because there is no biological environment in the mind of society. And to change the mind of society, it's pretty difficult unless you have some idea how to change your own mind. And to see the processes in yourself and if you don't, you won't be able to recognize how to make change in society. As Star Wars, though it looks like the opposite, is a move away from nuclear weapons.

[20:22]

And why? Because it's a basic change in assumptions. And the change in assumptions is more powerful than the contents. Because the assumption is what structures the consciousness before the contents appear to you. Okay, so how do you get again into the structure of consciousness? And this is the point of Zazen practice. To get into the structure of your consciousness. To see the process and structure of your consciousness. So while we're talking about these things in this seminar, we'll also be practicing Zazen song.

[21:49]

So while we're doing this discussion, we're also trying to learn something about the meditation process that allows us to discover these things. So we have two things going on then. What are these terms, consciousness, karma and so forth? And how do we practice zazen so we enter this process more clearly? How is Zazen a practice of consciousness, karma and perception? So I would welcome again questions or comments from you about these two things. the terms and also how do you practice Zazen so that you can realize this.

[23:04]

So you are less estranged from the world by being in your own consciousness. Now, of course, this will be the last topic I think I introduce before we have a break. Now, of course, there is a long history, well, there is a long history In fact, there are innumerable instances of human history, human culture, being part of and in interaction with the biological environment.

[24:24]

There is no way to escape from the encounter of individuals and groups of people with the biological environment. They are virtually inseparable. But we have separated them. That separation is sometimes what we call the difference between natural and unnatural. So there are again endless, innumerable, unlimited numbers of experience, contact we have with the biological environment. But where does that information, that experience exist?

[25:38]

And have we, is it really, can we even call it experience? Have we experienced our interaction with the biological environment? Probably not. It's there, but it's not part of the self or history of a government. It's not part of the history and self of our culture. Except for the fact that we make babies together, there's very little in our personal history having to do with the biological environment.

[26:40]

But that experience exists. Or that information exists unexperienced. So if that stuff exists, why isn't it part of our experience? Because the assumptions that filter out the initial perceptions don't include the biological environment. So the assumptions you have filter out your experience. So there's many instances of stuff in your life that doesn't come into your chronology. Now let's get rid of the idea of past, present and future.

[27:53]

Things don't really exist in the past. They're present. But they're present in a special way. And they're present in... in varying degrees now if you do zazen and you're sitting let's imagine time as a kind of sticky stuff Just for the image of it, let's imagine time is a kind of sticky stuff.

[28:58]

Does it make any sense in German? Time is a sticky stuff. Chewing gum. Chewing gum time? Bubble gum time? Maybe that's good. Some of these things, I don't know, maybe you have to stay and stick to the words in English, the sticky stuff of time. Isn't there a rocket, the SST, isn't that some weapon system? So when you do zazen, in a sense you're emerging, immersing yourself in the sticky stuff of time. Now, when you're in your thinking mind, you're in a fairly simple chronology of stuff that reaches back, that produced the history of your thinking self present. So you have the sense that something that happened five years ago is happened five years ago and is in your chronology up till now.

[30:24]

but there are many things that happen that aren't in your chronology that are floating out there in the sticky stuff of time floating along with you in the present so you do zazen And in a funny way you're looking out horizontally into the sticky stuff of time. And I think any of you who have done much meditation Have the experience of something appearing out there in the sticky stuff of time that you hadn't recognized before.

[31:36]

I mean, it's not part of your chronology. You don't know where it fits in back there somewhere in the past. It's waiting there for you to notice it. It's been waiting a long time, as long as you're, you know, maybe 10, 20, 30 years it's been waiting. So all of you are like fields walking along. And surrounding you is this sticky stuff of time filled with stuff. And you kind of pull it in so you get between people. And walk through doorways so it doesn't stop you as you're trying to get in. So you pull in most of the time. But you still don't recognize it pulled in, you know.

[32:51]

And you do zazen, you let it kind of open up. Now this is actually, something like this really happens in that everything is enfolded on top of everything else. And the way memory exists is that everything is enfolded together. It's very difficult to notice things because it's all folded up. That's why things appear in dreams only half unfolded. Images are complex because these things are folded together in them.

[33:55]

This is why the image is a more powerful dimension of consciousness than thought, powerful in a sense, because more things can be folded into an image than into a thought or words. But thought has its own power to create our common consciousness and common world. And we use thought then to go back and filter the images. Because there's the initial perception, then there's the image, then there's the thought So when you do zazen or when you live in a certain way or change the pace of your living sometimes It's almost like these different folds have different frequencies.

[35:12]

Folding is a very important part of Buddhist practice. Now this is all folded up. It's very hard for you to tell exactly what it's like. You see this part or you see this part, but how do you figure out the whole from that? And much of your history is like that. And waking mind doesn't unfold it. Waking mind deals with the product that appears. Thinking has a very difficult time unfolding this. But there are forms of consciousness that, non-thinking forms of consciousness, where this unfolds automatically. And you can begin to see it from various points of view.

[36:14]

It's almost like different states of mind have different frequencies. The different frequencies allow different dimensions of karma to unfold. So again, while you're doing zazen sometimes or meditation, something happens that something occurs from nowhere. You don't know how it arose, but something occurs that happened to you in the past. But it's only become part of your chronology either in a very bent way or partial way, or it hasn't become part of your chronology at all.

[37:28]

Or the history of who you think you are. Now, the great problem we have, just to shift it back to the cultural biological environment, As all the millions, billions, unlimited numbers of interactions we have with the biological environment are out there somewhere in the sticky stuff of cultural time, But the conscious history of governments and societal definitions doesn't include it. So we somehow have to change the membrane where society and the biological environment meet. To allow this information from the environment to come across and become part of our history.

[38:49]

So also the practice of karma and consciousness in Buddhism is changing the membrane in your life that makes it more permeable and the mystery comes across into your life. The mystery and many dimensions of your existence which are just out there in the sticky stuff of time and are part of your history. Wow, it's hard to do. Okay, so that's another step to an introduction to karma and consciousness. Okay, thank you very much. And let's have a, it's 10.40, let's have a break till 11.

[40:04]

So I'd like to hear something from you. Any comments so far? I'd like to hear something from you. Any comments so far? Or people who have, individuals who've been in other seminars, if there's something that occurred in the other seminar, you'd like to have me bring up in more detail, please tell me. In general, I try to avoid things I've discussed in other seminars, if I can't. So it would be up to you to, if something came up before that you'd like me to talk about, I'd try to... Okay. What? Yes. I think so.

[41:24]

Or you can say it in both, but start out with Deutsch anyway. The time when I lived in Crescent, I had this disciplined life and then came back to Frankfurt and went to work. I work with old people. I have noticed that since then I can not put my practice into my real life. I make these differences. I see it regularly, but I can not concentrate on my consciousness or breathing. I will summarize a bit and you can correct me if I left something important out. after living for nine months in Christstones and Mount Sandra and then going back to Frankfurt to my work where I take care of old people I'm realizing that I cannot integrate my spiritual practice into my everyday life and although I sit every day I feel I cannot do this having my consciousness on my breath and practicing in this way yeah

[42:57]

That's why places like Crestone exist. And it takes, I mean, we can make a baby in nine months but you can't change your spiritual consciousness in nine months. It takes more incubation. More incubation. Hibernation. Winterschlaf. Yeah. Summerschlaf and a winterschlaf. That's interesting because hibernation doesn't have any season in it. It's usually winter but you can use it outside of the seasonal connotation. But normally animals hibernate when it's cold.

[43:59]

Human beings sometimes hibernate when it's hot. Sorry, German language is so... Precise, yes. It's so hot I went into winter schloss. Well, you just have... I think, as I said yesterday about... taking a chance to practice at doorways and stairs. Another way to remind yourself in this occasional moment incubation is to settle yourself into your breath or bring yourself back to your breath Every time you look out a window. So that can be a practice. Like stepping through the door can be a practice.

[45:03]

So all day while you're taking care of these old people you do that. You could also take as a practice, each time you see one of these old people, notice their breath. Notice that particular person's breath. And sometimes, and if you feel like it, and if you're with them long enough, Adjust your breath with theirs. And if they're nervous, after you've adjusted your breath with theirs, you can use your breath to calm them down.

[46:11]

Because once you hook your breath in with somebody else, theirs hooks in with you. You can actually calm another person down.

[46:20]

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