As you might guess, we're going to start by sitting for a little bit. And we're going to sit for about 20 minutes. And as we sit, we'll come around and look at postures. It's very helpful as you start to sit to really be diligent and deliberate about defining your posture. Giving yourself time to, you know, get to place yourself on your cushion or cushions. Get your knees firmly set on the ground.

[01:13]

Noticing your balance. Find your balance with your body, not your mind. So that's a wonderful way to start shifting. You can descend from the body. Not leaning forward, not leaning back. Well, side to side. Tucking in the lower back, but not overarching. The lower back is very flexible. Let me lifting up on the front of the chest as the shoulders can widen.

[02:30]

Shoulder blades maybe moving down the back. Arms widening out from the wide shoulders. Arm pits open. Elbows out to the body. And the hands coming back in with the buddha. Thumbtips touching. Little fingers against the abdomen. Thumbs. Thumbtips around at the level of the navel. Not holding the posture, your buddha up from the shoulders. Shoulders tall. As if the Buddha was floating. Light extending up to the back of the head, to the crown of the head.

[03:41]

Inesiquity, rain and aliveness divided And the angel Filming this, Elias Biden. Awareness of breath becoming part of awareness of body. And the exhale, the weak thing. Inhale, noticing the physicality of breathing in.

[05:38]

Physicality, your physical sensations will happen with the inhale and the exhale. This foundation, willingness to just mean whatever happens, let it be fully experienced, let it rise, let it fall away. physical temptation, thought, feeling,

[06:45]

Okay, in this first trimester, which is about establishing continuous sustainable practice, we have focused mainly on the body. And the body is this incredible animal. If you think of your body as an animal, And Mary Oliver has a wonderful poem about that, which I'll read to you in a moment. It's this wonderful thing. And David White once, you know, in one of his talks says, a kingfisher would never say, why on earth do I have to be a kingfisher? Why do I have always to get completely wet when I want to eat? Could I please have a day as a crow? just one day, but we can do that.

[16:04]

In addition to having a body like an animal, we have a mind that is engaged in reflection, comparing self-reflection, and can come up with alternatives, can imagine innumerable alternatives, and also takes us often away from the experience of the body Because we explain everything, we have stories about everything, and we relate with the concepts we put on experiences. We start relating to those as if they were the reality. So we don't really relate to the experience, we relate to what we name the experience. So by stretching and by asking you to become aware of how you walk, or what posture you have, or to slow down your daily activities, we're inviting you to enter your experience.

[17:08]

Because if you are completely in your body, which is actually also the way you are in this life, without your body, you wouldn't be here. So everything in this lifetime happens through with the aid, with this physicality of your being here with this body. And often we just use it and get upset with it when it doesn't do what we expect it to do, but we don't really enter. And so that's why we keep coming back and coming back, and we will continue that through the next two trimesters, too, to kind of encourage you, invite you to Really, as much as possible, immerse yourself into the actual experience of the moment. So Mary Oliver said, you don't have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for 100 miles through the desert repenting.

[18:12]

You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it's loved. Tell me about these stairs, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile, the world goes on. Meanwhile, the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile, the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, No matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you, like the wild geese, harsh and exciting, over and over announcing your place in the family of things. And the place we have in the family of things is our body, here, now, wherever here and now is.

[19:21]

over and over and over again. So we always are invited to enter. Always fresh are invited to be exactly where we are and experience exactly what we are experiencing in this moment. So it's never too late and there's always a fresh opportunity. Do we have time? Sure. I can send it out by email. You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for 100 miles to the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body, love what it loves.

[20:25]

Tell me about this bear, yours and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile, the world goes on. Meanwhile, the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile, The wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting, over and over announcing your place in the family of things. when we take that imposter.

[21:33]

And what we're being presented with is an ideal form. And that ideal form represents what it is just open and upright having shed our psychosomatic encoding of a lifetime. So by some chance it feels a little bit difficult There's probably good reason. But you know, the thing about any ideal form that we take on as a practice, like be present in the moment, what it will reveal is a way we're not present. So the ideal form, the ideal physical form of zazen will reveal the ways you're a little off-balance, a little tight, you know, that So the challenge is not to numb out, disregard, and not to struggle with what arises in the process of attempting to take on the agile force.

[22:48]

But can it be a teaching and be a guide as to what a deeper release might be? And if we can remind ourselves of that again and again, because we do encode our emotions in our body. You know, that's the psychosomatic office. And so when we start to attend to it and experience it, we're touching into those deeply held emotions. And the challenge part is something like let them unwind. Not to struggle with them, but to feel them and let them unwind how they unwind. And the way we do that is that we shift as best we can from thinking about our body to feeling our body.

[23:56]

As I was saying, the setup if you can shift from your ideas about posture to the actual physical transition of posture. This is the challenge of sitting. And so every time we sit down, we literally remind ourselves of that, and then we attempt to engage it. And then we meet the body we are in this period of Zaga. And we let that body teach us how to be physical, how to love the soft animal of our own being. And we attend to it and relate to it in a way that lets it unwind rather than contract even more. And this is not a cognitive process.

[24:59]

This is not something your mind figures out. So it's not actually so helpful to take your physical sensations and figure it out. If you can let it be in a form of physicality, let it be sensed as a physical sensation and let it be worked with. So in adjusting your posture, stay in touch with the sensation of body and let that go. I would say the best adjustments we make, the adjustments that are most helpful in our balance, in our uprightness, in our stability, are quite subtle. And they arise from staying connected to the body. And then the breath is also this kind of physical register that we add to the breath, emotion, effort.

[26:07]

And the idea of letting breath flow through the body, of letting the body breathe, is an ideal. And what we notice is even when we're attending to the breath, It's still quite a challenge to just let the breath breathe the body. Let the body breathe the breath. Let something happen. So we need it as a guide. And we notice how we separate from it or how we want to do something to it. And then that's our future. And then the sentate way of being establishes a foundation. And then the whole complexity of our human life, the attitude, the disposition, the moods, our psychological archetypes and frameworks of reference.

[27:23]

They can be held from this basis of just being what is. That's the wisdom of the body. It has the physicality of just being what is. And it's a foundation. And then all the thoughts and feelings and complexities of our human existence just become the activity of the moment. The same way, the side, and the side street. That's the ideal. And in relationship to that ideal, we see what we do to it. Whether we get caught up in it, whether we resist it, whether we have a wonderful argument with ourselves or somebody else, whatever we do. Can the activity of the conditioned nature of who we are happen? the thought of taking it personally.

[28:29]

This is what's happening right now, beyond good or bad. Not to say I don't have ideas and opinions about it, but they're just part of it too. So this rests on the foundation of body. And then one last thing. So what we've been offering is, I've been offering stretching, both to engage body, but also help loosen up the psychosomatic encoding. And then to a large extent, Christina has been offering sensing to rediscover how to be body, how to be body in a more subtle way. And now what I'd like to do is offer you an opportunity to ask questions.

[29:36]

Because in a way, this is a lot of what we've been trying to emphasize in this first trimester. So if you have any questions about it, things we've said, things we didn't say, what arises in your own experience, particular problems you've had, sort of like a little soft question, but it relates to my experience. I'm just like, why is it so easy to relate to the physicality and the beauty and softness of like other, like the kid cat or another person? It's so hard to do it to yourself. I mean, it's just, what's up with that? For better and for worse, we developed a big brain. and we use it a lot as Christina would think because literally a lot of our consciousness consciousness activity happens in the brain but it's negative for itself it's not so much that it's negative to itself it's just that we get captivated by it and then we get like

[31:00]

What we think defines reality rather than just being what we think. And in the process of doing that, we disconnect from body. And that's often why you find when you sit, you get lost in your thoughts and it's like you lose your body. You lose awareness. It's what happens to this thought and the worst goes to you. What's the answer? What's the answer? Oh, I see what you're saying. Not exactly, but I was thinking maybe it wasn't that relevant. You didn't think it got answered? I'm joking again. I'm sorry. I didn't quite care what you said. I'm okay. That was just more of almost like a rhetorical question. But I think it's more about, you know, there's something about the way that

[32:01]

we relate to ourselves that is much more critical on some level or fix it or whatever than, to me, at least how I relate to other people. Like if I'm doing a loving-kindness meditation, I can really do that and go there with friends and family. And then when you try to turn it back on yourself, there is sort of like a disconnect. It takes a lot more energy and more work. I would say... No, I would say it's part of our fundamental makeup. Some of us reference others more easily and stronger than we reference self. And then some people, as the other day of mine, we reference self. You could almost say it falls into the categories of The extrovert will register external more strongly, and the intellect will register internal more strongly.

[33:17]

I'd love to ask you a question, because we were having a priest meeting. We were talking about God's instruction. I brought that up, because the last time somebody asked me that, I was floored. It's not something I practice with a lot, falling asleep. So I got a lot of suggestions of peacock from my Donovan brothers and sisters. The first thing I want to say is congratulations. You're so comfortable. It's so easeful in your body. The top animal can actually fall asleep. Now what? Because that's actually not our practice. You can notice what's going on with your eyes. You know, we keep our eyes open, turn your eyes in. And there's a good reason. I'd say probably the main reason is that they're falling asleep and not bathing or going into a remedy.

[34:23]

So you can also have your eyes open when you sit the eyes in. 45 degree angle, down, soft gaze. And that will help you not fall asleep. And another thing you're calling to sleep, you might try raising your gaze, like look scared to your head, and open your eyes wider. And that's it all. Always pay attention, you know, that's just the standard . Come back to your breath, come back to your posture, your mood, you know. It's an early warning system in a way. When you notice collapsing and going down like this, you can energize it. You can energize the posture more. Korean Zen, sometimes the Korean monks talk about just really energize your put a lot of energy into it.

[35:26]

Not moving, but just like feeling the energy. letting a course through your body, that can wake you up. I think Buddha recommended also, in severe cases, even . Without moving. Yeah. If you're enough of a yogic adapt, I think that can be done. Yes. At what point did your I don't know. How much thousand are you sitting? I can maybe add to that. I think it's a very important question to explore what the time is about. If it is like, just in the moment, you kind of remit them to this sitting right now,

[36:28]

Or when you take stock away, find out that for the last three nights you actually didn't get enough sleep. And when you sit regularly, you also get a feeling of what kind of sleepiness this is. Sometimes just sleep. I didn't have a lot to compare it to what? Yeah. Did it be too hard to try to answer?

[37:46]

What was yours? I wanted to give you the answer. You know, often in different parts of the body, how we hold our shoulders, how we position our chest, how we tighten our stomach, our lower back, our neck, our jaw, you know, it's expressive of the strong emotions we felt. I'm not so sure about your foot. Maybe someone with keener sensibility could offer some perceptions around that. but in these other ways. So sometimes, as some of you may have had the experience when we're having like a deep tissue massage, and some part of your body is being opened up these way, an emotion arises.

[38:51]

And it's not because you've had a particular core process going on, it's actually quite literally changing from releasing that part of the body, the associated emotion came up. Does that answer your question or was there more you wanted to say about it? No. But then the posture, as I was saying, could be like, one way to describe it might be psychosomatically neutral. So as we move towards that, quite naturally it will tend to release the emotional quality that's encoded in holding our body a certain way. So maybe sometimes when you did the mindfulness activities that someone wants to describe tasting a particular flavor

[39:59]

brought back memories or brought back a connection way back into the childhood. So that's true, what's happening. So sometimes it's an emotion, sometimes it's a memory. And the smell can evoke that, something you hear, something you see, a taste, or some relaxation in your body. Sometimes my day is so big that there are a few times when I had a chance to release that in 2009. So just before the event, you know, 12.30 or 9 or something, finally one of the days I got that space, that time to do it. But I feel really just if I do it, I just want to go to bed and I do it. My experience is much different than when I do it in the sitting morning or later in the afternoon.

[41:01]

Do you think that's just because you're tired or is it okay to do since then? Just before you do that. I don't think there's any bad time to do it or okay or not okay time. I'm used to do it in the morning, like pretty soon after I wake up because the whole activity of being in my day and in the world hasn't been activated yet. And so for me, and for lots of us, that's a more helpful sign to sit. And I also usually recommend trying to find the same time during the day to sit. So it's not like when you can fit it in. So it is at the end of an exhausting day, but it's like, you know, if it is in the morning, it's there.

[42:06]

It's a part of what you do as much as brush your teeth or, you know, have breakfast or something. But sometimes it happens, maybe, like you said, that it's really late. I would say still sit and then have the experience of what you have and have that in the full moment. Any questions about your posture, about how you're arranging your body? Any questions about particular exercises that are helpful for different things? And feedback about ETP?

[43:22]

Because I always get the cat missing. Professor, it would be helpful to talk about some of the exercises in general and how they would impact different parts of your body and your body. I would like to have some of your thoughts about the journaling, which I think that some people started out as very general advice with you. that the father of what was happening to the class. And I'm just disappointed that Lauren stopped really looking for it. And I think that there was not really getting a look at it and being touched because that's all. And Sarah was going to get in the trouble with her because I think the part was going on. So we need to get done. Let me very briefly answer your question first.

[44:29]

Apa Yoga is intended to loosen, lengthen and strengthen the body so that it can adopt this neutral psychosomatic posture. And then putting together that little routine that I put together, it was an attempt to glean from all the things I've been taught over the years, a routine that did that in a manner that would work for someone who hadn't had a lot of yogic training. And I would say there's If you've had lots of yoga training, please. Do it. What you've been trained to do. Or other kinds of training, body gym. There's no way to do it. Anyone want to talk about gentlemen?

[45:39]

Can you say something? Please. We started out with asking you to have a log, which just writes down, from when to when, and know whatever came to your awareness while you were ready, while you were doing what they asked you to do. And the way I understood it, and maybe you join in when you're missing something, was mostly to help you just become aware. Because it's so easy to forget, forget for a whole week, that actually you had a task to do so if you write down every day what did i do that kind of keeps it bringing back and then so and it's also part of this practice is really learning to be as accurate as possible you could say as honest as possible but honestly has a kind of a moral so as accurate as precise as possible so um because that is in

[46:50]

in turns, giving you responses, because in your mind you can think, oh, I did this, as Paul said this morning, oh, I'm sitting every day, and then you really look, oh, no, here I didn't, and here I didn't, and here I didn't. You have the intention, and suddenly you think you did it all the time. So it's kind of, it's informing you, and that in turns brings up an answer in you, either to drop it completely, or to engage in an other way or to find a modification that works. So we never, to my understanding, we never went into too journaling. Which is kind of going more into maybe stories or what only triggered and writing down more of those things. And that might be helpful for many people. We didn't make it a part of this program. I mean, there are awareness trainings that have that in it every day. So that's why we didn't never kind of have revisited it.

[47:56]

What we revisit is kind of the monthly reflection. Another really helpful, I was thinking, is particularly, based on comment, helpful to me about that meeting . and being aware of how they've been through. And so that's what I started to do in the journal, quote, unquote. And that's what I mean now. You can pick it up again.

[48:57]

I think maybe many of you find something that's a little bit on the side, river or meander of the ripped main flow that really engages you or really helps you to stay on track or to be connected and be? I was curious about other physical activities that they would have similar sense of benefits as yoga. So, for instance, weight training, resistance training. In my experience, you've got the focus and you have to be very aware of your body when you're lifting weights. And the other one, would you give me a wonderful advice, that kind of training? Does it provide the same sort of, or whatever it is you want to achieve to go there? You've got more wonderful advice.

[50:05]

Short answer about weight training, I don't know. I mean, I could imagine that it could be done in a very attentive way to your posture. You know, abstractly, that seems to me as it would be the appropriate way to do it. I remember hearing a weight trainer saying once, which stayed with me, the most important part about lifting weights is your breathing. which made me think, oh, so there is a body wisdom in that prophets too. I mean, it seems to me all sorts of activities could and probably would have some body wisdom to them. You could ask Rev. Anderson. When we read these practice credits at Tassajara, we turned one of the guest cabins into a waiting room. We did practice lifting weights and the bit about the bathing is absolutely spot on.

[51:16]

And, you know, having a strong vibe enables sitting, I think that's a no-brainer. I think there's been a bit in that. I think there's been a bit in the martial arts There's a long history of connection with Zen and mark a lot of training, provided you don't get too violent. And I'd also say running and cycling enable practice. And I would take exception to the last two because I think they use the body in a limited way. They need to be complemented. If you run and cycle, it's very helpful, especially if you want to do cross-legged sitting, but you do complement distraction, because they focus mostly on the lower body, and the way they use the muscles tends to tighten the hamstrings, which is not so helpful for a sitting.

[52:24]

I also found out that at different times, on just how the body is changing, I need a different kind of body. I used to do Tai Chi, and now it seems to be more important to do certain types of yoga, just because my hips have changed to the male force. So I think it's an ongoing process for just being well. I think maybe this is something that will be incorporated going forward. Or maybe it's not perfect. One of the things I always loved about these Zen practices is

[53:31]

some of the reading that we, you know, so in various classes, we've read different things. Or just, I don't know, it sort of helps inform the practice. Maybe we don't want to bring that in because it stimulates all these intellectual activities about it. It's our intention to offer some reading, but as you've noticed, not a whole lot. And for a couple of reasons, the one you just said, that we're trying to create experiential learning rather than academic learning or intellectual learning. Although intellectual learning can complement experiential learning, but the experiential learning is a primary one, and that's why we won't introduce so much. And then the other one is just the assumption that there is a plethora, there's an abundance,

[54:31]

of very good books and that you have easy access to that if you wish. Words should be guided through an experiential process. It does require to be more hands on. But if you have particular questions, you can also ask. And if you want us to put together a reading list, you know, we should do that too. Well, I'm lighting up. I'm going to be interested to know why did you work here with this song? I don't like to do it anymore. I would do it because I don't want to do it anymore.

[55:32]

Good one. Go ahead, Dana. When I first started practicing the wisdom of no escape and the children, wisdom of no escape. Great title. I would accept the thinking. I was first introduced to Zen practice by reading Zen Mind Beginners Nothing. Is that Zen teacher's pet? And who wrote that book then? I think the book that is most informed

[56:38]

And in Danish, my practice, in recent years, is the lotus syndrome. What do you think, Anna? I'm just struck quite a lot. And it's hard for me to decide. Right now, I don't have one book there. It's a thing. Well, recently I'm reading Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth, and I find it very inspiring. It's a little bit non-denominational from all different traditions for TikToks. I find it a very helpful and complimentary way about the different roles, the ego or what in Buddhism we would say the illusory self is taking and how it's functioning.

[57:49]

And he had an awakening experience and he's building his book in a way that actually when you read it, it changes your awareness. Descartes Tolle, T-O-L-L-E. And then I have other books, and right now the titles just really fell through a hole. I have no idea where they went from. I find that I read different books for different things. Some books I read for inspiration. A book recently I've been reading that I find very inspiring is On the Blue Shore of Silence, which is a book of poetry by Pablo Laruda. I've been reading neuroscience, some of the recent studies that arise in the world of neuroscience.

[58:56]

I find that very inspirational. And I've been reading the Shobodento, A text by the finder of Soto Zen. I read them all together. Are you reading the Japanese? Translation. Mostly in articles that people keep passing to me. That's the right thing. Yeah, that area. The conferences that the Dalai Lama organized with science, destructive emotions is one of them. One is about sleep, dreaming. Those are helpful because they bring both together. No, they...

[60:03]

The mindful brain. But I would say, you know, some people might find that fascinating, which I do, and then I think others might find it kind of irrelevant. I think it's important to know that, I would say, it's very helpful. to know what inspires you. I think inspiration is a very nourishing process. When you read something and you literally feel inspired. I think inspiration takes the request of practice and enlightens it. It's less as a burden or a duty and more as an enrichment geo. infused with inspiration.

[61:07]

And I know in many traditions, they say that knowing what inspires you is a key point of spiritual practice. Thank you. I think that overall, . I would be wrong to them because they were spotted. And when I wrapped it up, it was dipping up and that was just what I needed. And maybe I need to ask more for it. When I come to a general shop, I get to the side of it. And I carry them with me, and I really notice that. It gives me more enthusiasm and more inspiration to keep them in practice. I'm young. I don't think I should be able to ask more in the beginning, when I'm getting the same, but right in the beginning, yes.

[62:10]

Okay. Yes. People would say that that's how we do that with the power of a game, the power of nothing, and they had several moments of ten of the power of nothing. Apparently, it was already a game, oh, well, yeah, so... I think that's why I wanted to stop it. [...] Unless there's a matter of varying questions, they'd like to take a break.

[63:20]

But if you have a question, you'd really like to ask. I would like to say normally we have water available, but we haven't had a chance to get any. So if you need something to drink, why don't you just follow me, I'll show you the kitchen. And you can get your own water. Okay, so let's take a bathroom break. And we'll ring a bell at the end. And if you could do it in silence, that would be good. We'll ring the bell. We'll ring the bell.

[63:54]

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