Mark Foote

I neglected to mention something, with regard to activity of the body solely by virtue of the free location of consciousness (the characteristic of the fourth concentration). When such activity is witnessed, there's a falling away of "latent conceits that I am the doer, mine is the doer, with regard to this consciousness-informed body" (MN 109, Pali Text Society vol III p 68). What remains is something like this: When (one's) mind is thus concentrated, pure and bright, unblemished, free from defects, malleable, wieldy, steady and attained to imperturbability, (one) directs and inclines it to knowledge and vision. (One) understands thus: ‘This is my body, having material form, composed of the four primary elements, originating from father and mother, built up out of rice and gruel, impermanent, subject to rubbing and pressing, to dissolution and dispersion. And this is my consciousness, supported by it and bound up with it.’ Great king, suppose there were a beautiful beryl gem of purest water, eight-faceted, well cut, clear, limpid, flawless, endowed with all excellent qualities. And through it there would run a blue, yellow, red, white, or brown thread. A (person) with keen sight, taking it in (their) hand, would reflect upon it thus: ‘This is a beautiful beryl gem of purest water, eight faceted, well cut, clear, limpid, flawless, endowed with all excellent qualities. And running through it there is this blue, yellow, red, white, or brown thread.’ In the same way, great king, when (a person's) mind is thus concentrated, pure and bright … (that person then) directs and inclines it to knowledge and vision and understands thus: ‘This is my body, having material form, composed of the four primary elements, originating from father and mother, built up out of rice and gruel, impermanent, subject to rubbing and pressing, to dissolution and dispersion. and this is my consciousness, supported by it and bound up with it.’ (DN 2 Sāmaññaphala Sutta, tr. Bhikkyu Bodhi) Consciousness tied to the body like a jewel on a string. Activity of the body by virtue of the free location of consciousness, in particular the activity of inhalation and exhalation by virtue of the free location of consciousness, allows the recognition that the free location of consciousness is nevertheless tied to the body. That's at the heart of the "knowledge and vision" that Gautama saw as a desirable outcome of the religious life. Of course, even Robert Munroe saw that as the case, in his "Far Journeys". He learned that in order to come back into his body (after he had travelled out of it, to god knows where), all he had to do was to make himself aware of his breathing. Didn't seem to give Robert the "intuitive wisdom" that is synonymous with the destruction of the cravings that Gautama saw as obstacles to the religious life (“craving for the life of sense”, “craving for becoming”, and “craving for not-becoming” [DN 22; PTS vol. ii p 340]--when the cankers are “destroyed”, the roots of the craving for sense-pleasures, the roots of the craving “to continue, to survive, to be” [tr. “bhava”, Bhikkyu Sujato], and the roots of the craving not “to be” [the craving for the ignorance of being] are destroyed). That insight, that consciousness is bound to the body, is also likely the source of statements of Gautama like this: It were better… if the untaught manyfolk approached this body, child of the four great elements, as the self rather than the mind. Why so? Seen is it… how this body, child of the four great elements, persists for a year, persists for two years, persists for three, four, five, ten, twenty, thirty years, persists for forty, for fifty years, persists for a hundred years and even longer. But this… that we call thought, that we call mind, that we call consciousness, that arises as one thing, ceases as another, whether by night or by day. (Pali Text Society SN vol. II p 66) A more humble view of the mind and consciousness, acquired through maintaining a presence of mind with the location of consciousness, the location of the "heart-mind", until activity of the body is solely by virtue of the location of that consciousness (until habit and volition in the activity of the body have ceased). And realizing that the location of consciousness is by necessity, necessity in the movement of breath, necessity in the structure of the sacrum and spine, necessity that arrives from beyond the boundaries of the senses but is nevertheless tied to them. The location of consciousness, bound to the necessity of the body. Yes, talking to myself, forgive me...

what is next, clown cars running up and down the street? calling Dick Tracy...

That page is refusing to load for me!

Been hearing that in my head a lot lately, as I pursue this chore or that... I don't mind!

Me, too. Posted about it on the technical thread, just now.

Sometimes I get a message from Cloudflare, that they're unable to connect. Sometimes it just takes 30 seconds or longer to pull up a thread or change between topics. Anybody else experiencing this?

orientation is important for pirates, in walking the plank

Gautama the Shakyan, who came to be known as Gautama the Buddha, spoke of three “cankers”, of three desires or cravings, and of their destruction. The three cankers were “craving for the life of sense”, “craving for becoming”, and “craving for not-becoming” (DN 22; PTS vol. ii p 340). When the cankers are “destroyed”, the roots of the craving for sense-pleasures, the roots of the craving “to continue, to survive, to be” (tr. “bhava”, Bhikkyu Sujato), and the roots of the craving not “to be” (the craving for the ignorance of being) are destroyed. As to what the cankers have to do with free will--much of Gautama’s teaching revolved around the action of "choice": ‘Deeds should be known. And their source, diversity, result, cessation, and the practice that leads to their cessation should be known.’ That’s what I said, but why did I say it? It is intention that I call deeds. For after making a choice one acts by way of body, speech, and mind. (AN 6.63, tr. Bhikkyu Sujato) “After making a choice"—when a person exercises volition, or choice, action of “deed, word, or thought” follows. What is the practice that leads to the cessation of the deeds born of intention? The actions that occur out of intention cease in the states of "absorption", of concentration, first the acts of speech, then the acts of the body (in particular habit and volition in the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation), and finally the acts of the mind (in particular habit and volition in the activity of feeling and perceiving): For someone who has attained the first absorption, speech has ceased. For someone who has attained the second absorption, the placing of the mind and keeping it connected have ceased. For someone who has attained the third absorption, rapture has ceased. For someone who has attained the fourth absorption, breathing has ceased. For someone who has attained the dimension of infinite space, the perception of form has ceased. For someone who has attained the dimension of infinite consciousness, the perception of the dimension of infinite space has ceased. For someone who has attained the dimension of nothingness, the perception of the dimension of infinite consciousness has ceased. For someone who has attained the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception, the perception of the dimension of nothingness has ceased. For someone who has attained the cessation of perception and feeling, perception and feeling have ceased. For a mendicant who has ended the defilements, greed, hate, and delusion have ceased. (SN 36.11, tr. Bhikkyu Sujato) And how does one attain the first absorption? … making self-surrender the object of thought, (a person) lays hold of concentration, lays hold of one-pointedness. (That person), aloof from sensuality, aloof from evil conditions, enters on the first trance, which is accompanied by thought directed and sustained, which is born of solitude, easeful and zestful, and abides therein. (SN 48.10, tr. PTS vol. V p 174) And how does self-surrender lead to "one-pointedness"? So (in seated meditation), have your hands… palms up, thumbs touching, and there’s this common instruction: place your mind here. Different people interpret this differently. Some people will say this means to place your attention here, meaning to keep your attention on your hands. It’s a way of turning the lens to where you are in space so that you’re not looking out here and out here and out here. It’s the positive version, perhaps, of ‘navel gazing’. The other way to understand this is to literally place your mind where your hands are–to relocate mind (let’s not say your mind) to your center of gravity, so that mind is operating from a place other than your brain. Some traditions take this very seriously, this idea of moving your consciousness around the body. I wouldn’t recommend dedicating your life to it, but as an experiment, I recommend trying it, sitting in this posture and trying to feel what it’s like to let your mind, to let the base of your consciousness, move away from your head. One thing you’ll find, or that I have found, at least, is that you can’t will it to happen, because you’re willing it from your head. To the extent that you can do it, it’s an act of letting go–and a fascinating one. (“No Struggle [Zazen Yojinki, Part 6]”, by Koun Franz, from the “Nyoho Zen” site)

Someone named "Meido" posted this on dharmawheel.net, in response to the line you're referring to as "the adage"--I would assume that Meido is Meido Moore, the Rinzai teacher in Wisconsin: Here from the Ruth Fuller Sasaki translation: ONE DAY SHIH-T'OU said to the Layman: "Since seeing me, what have your daily activities been?" "When you ask me about my daily activities, I can't open my mouth," the Layman replied. "Just because I know you are thus I now ask you," said Shih-t'ou. Whereupon the Layman offered this verse: My daily activities are not unusual, I'm just naturally in harmony with them. Grasping nothing, discarding nothing, In every place there's no hindrance, no conflict. Who assigns the ranks of vermilion and purple? The hills' and mountains' last speck of dust is extinguished. [My] supernatural power and marvelous activity— Drawing water and carrying firewood. Shih-t'ou gave his assent. Then he asked: "Will you put on black robes or will you continue wearing white?" "I want to do what I like," replied the Layman. So he did not shave his head or dye his clothing. I don't think this particular Zen story is about doing the same things after enlightenment as before. Here's why: Cleave a (piece of) wood, I am there; lift up the stone and you will find Me there. (The Gospel According to Thomas, pg 43 log. 77, ©1959 E. J. Brill) The supernatural power is one-pointedness of mind, such as is automatic in splitting wood or lifting a heavy stone, drawing water or carrying firewood. Sometimes, if your mind is in the right place! Gautama described a mindfulness that was his own way of living "most of the time, especially in the rainy season". The sixteen observations or "contemplations" that made up that mindfulness were to be observed or contemplated in connection with breathing in and in connection with breathing out. He said that particular mindfulness was his way of living before he was enlightened, and after he was enlightened, so there is something that is the same before and after. You don't hear about it, because in order to make it fly, a person has to be able to touch on the cessation of habit and volition in activity of the body, in particular on the cessation of habit and volition in the activity of breathing. That's how I experience it, anyway, and then only out of necessity, but sometimes necessity shows up in daily life unexpectedly. Mostly at the tail end of the sitting, so a far cry from a way of living "most of the time", for me. That's ok, at least I can practice it, even if "whatever you imagine it to be, it is otherwise" (as Gautama described the concentrations). Gautama returned to one-pointedness of mind after he spoke: And I… at the close of (instructional discourse), steady, calm, make one-pointed and concentrate my mind subjectively in that first characteristic of concentration in which I ever constantly abide. (MN 36, Pali Text Society vol. I p 303; emphasis added) That's why, as Layman Pang said, the snowflakes "only fall here."

"What's a convolution without general immaculation..." (apologies to the musical, "The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade") What I find fascinating about your approach, Bindi, is the conjoining of the physical, as in the central dan-t'ien, with aspects of both emotional patterning and consciousness. I'll admit, I have relegated the emotional work to the occasional exploration of memories and involuntary feelings, with the expectation that my life and my general practice will bring forward what is unresolved. I associate that central dan-t'ien with the third line of Fuxi's poem: The empty hand grasps the hoe handle Walking along, I ride the ox The ox crosses the wooden bridge The bridge is flowing, the water is still (“Zen’s Chinese Heritage”, tr. Andy Ferguson, p 2) An essential part of my practice is the recognition that the ligaments, and in particular the stretch of ligaments, can control reciprocal innervation of agonist/antagonist muscle groups. Fuxi's first line I believe concerns the reciprocity in muscle activity in the gluteous and tensor muscles, controlled by the sacroiliac joint ligaments. The second line adds reciprocity in the muscles of the legs and the muscles around the pelvic basin generally, controlled by the stretch of the ilio-sacral ligaments (with the flexion and extension of the spine in inhalation and exhalation) and the stretch of the sacrospinous and sacrotubular ligaments. The third line is the arrival at reciprocity in all three sets of abdominals and the fine muscles of the spine, tied to the stretch of ligaments between the vertebrae of the central and upper lumbar spine. My role in it all is relaxation, recognizing the role of one-pointedness of mind and gravity in the feeling of ease, appreciating and detaching from thought. The last line is activity of the body solely by virtue of the location of consciousness, consciousness shifts and moves in the body and the automatic activity of the body follows. The sensation, said Gautama, is like a clean cloth covering the head and the entire body. So indeed, phenomena of the middle dan-t'ien associated with the leap to a "purity by the pureness of mind", a purity that can suffuse the body such that "there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind". Those who leap out of the diamond trap make an effort to leap out, those who swallow the thicket of thorns swallow it with care. (Yuanwu, "Zen Letters of Yuanwu", tr. Cleary, p 67) As I wrote previously: I practice now to experience the free placement of attention as the sole source of activity in the body in the movement of breath, and in my “complicated, difficult” daily life, I look for the mindfulness that allows me to touch on that freedom. My assumption is that the emotional work will find me, as it's invisible to me most of the time! The practice of the extension of friendliness and compassion, in Gautama's teaching: [One] dwells, having suffused the first quarter [of the world] with friendliness, likewise the second, likewise the third, likewise the fourth; just so above, below, across; [one] dwells having suffused the whole world everywhere, in every way, with a mind of friendliness that is far-reaching, wide-spread, immeasurable, without enmity, without malevolence. [One] dwells having suffused the first quarter with a mind of compassion… with a mind of sympathetic joy… with a mind of equanimity that is far-reaching, wide-spread, immeasurable, without enmity, without malevolence. |(MN 7; Pali Text Society Vol I p 48) Gautama said that “the excellence of the heart’s release” through the extension of the mind of compassion was the first of the further concentrations, a concentration he called “the infinity of ether” (SN 46.54; Pali Text Society Vol V p 100-102). You scare me, Bindi--thar be dragons at the edge of my mental world, I'm sure.

Gautama described a state in which volition in the activity of the mind falls away, in particular volition in feeling and perceiving. Now I would say that a more likely description of that cessation is that both habit and volition fall away, as for most of us the experience of feeling and perceiving without volition is not that uncommon. Gautama gives us some idea of what that state would be like in a lecture entitled "Emptiness" (MN 121). There he says: And there is only this that is not emptiness, that is to say the six sensory fields that, conditioned by life, are grounded on this body itself. (One) regards that which is not there as empty of it. But in regard to what remains, (one) comprehends: 'That being, this is.' (tr. Pali Text Society, vol. III pp 151-152) The six sense fields, the usual five and the mind (presumably as the organ of thought and memory), were still present for Gautama even with the final concentration, even as freedom and knowledge followed his recognition that "whatever is effected and thought out, that is impermanent, it is liable to stopping" in that final concentration. Gautama gave some idea of what consciousness without habit or volition in feeling and perceiving must be like, in another lecture: (Anyone)…knowing and seeing eye as it really is, knowing and seeing material shapes… visual consciousness… impact on the eye as it really is, and knowing, seeing as it really is the experience, whether pleasant, painful, or neither painful nor pleasant, that arises conditioned by impact on the eye, is not attached to the eye nor to material shapes nor to visual consciousness nor to impact on the eye; and that experience, whether pleasant, painful, or neither painful nor pleasant, that arises conditioned by impact on the eye—neither to that is (such a one) attached. …(Such a one’s) physical anxieties decrease, and mental anxieties decrease, and bodily torments… and mental torments… and bodily fevers decrease, and mental fevers decrease. (Such a one) experiences happiness of body and happiness of mind. (repeated for ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind). Whatever is the view of what really is, that for (such a one) is right view; whatever is aspiration for what really is, that for (such a one) is right aspiration; whatever is endeavour for what really is, that is for (such a one) right endeavour; whatever is mindfulness of what really is, that is for (such a one) right mindfulness; whatever is concentration on what really is, that is for (such a one) right concentration. And (such a one’s) past acts of body, acts of speech, and mode of livelihood have been well purified. (MN 149, tr. Pali Text Society vol. 3 pp 336-338) Although he makes his experience of the senses sound everyday, I think "knowing and seeing the eye as it really is, knowing and seeing material shapes... visual consciousness... impact on the eye", and subsequently knowing and seeing the feeling arising as a result of impact on the eye, that level of distinction can only really be had when habit and volition in feeling and perceiving have ceased. I don't aspire to that level of distinction, and yet I do see where arriving at the experience of activity of the body solely by virtue of the place of occurrence of consciousness whittles away at "the sense of 'self'", or as Gautama put it, the "latent conceits that mine is the doer, I am the doer, with regard to this consciousness-informed body." I also see the importance of the extension of the mind of friendliness and the mind of compassion "throughout the four corners of the world, above and below, without limit", as Gautama put it. "The excellence of the heart's release" that comes with the extension of the mind of compassion is the first of the "incorporeal" concentrations, according to Gautama, "the infinity of ether". That experience I think can be the source of truly selfless action of the body, the vine in motion, as it were.

A friend of mine was kind enough as to offer criticism of my latest post (on my own site). She said: I found it very meandering. Cut to the quick, she's good with swords! I responded: I view what I’m doing as more like a mathematical proof. My favorite proofs, and I believe those of my instructors, are the ones where the result just falls out from seemingly unrelated or seemingly unimportant related work. I thought the most interesting part of this post was the characterization of transmission outside of scripture as the transmission through demonstration of activity of the body solely by virtue of the free location of consciousness. That being the characteristic of the fourth concentration, and while it’s true there are a number of sermons where Gautama arrived at “profound knowledge” (enlightenment) while in the fourth concentration, it’s also true (by the “seven persons existing in the world” sermon) that attainment of the fourth concentration alone does not automatically result in the complete destruction of the cankers. Folks wonder why their authentic Zen master has been sleeping around, they think enlightenment should preclude this. From the time of Gautama, the answer has been no, that’s not necessarily the case. What is transmitted in the Zen tradition does not in and of itself mean that sensory desire is cut off at the root. Something I didn’t delve into in the essay, because I didn’t need to in order to make the points I wanted to make, is the record of how Gautama arrived at “profound knowledge” in the fourth concentration. He did so by using the pliability of his mind in that state to reflect on “former habitations”, and “the passing and arising of beings”, after which he attained insight into the four truths about suffering and a similar four truths about the cankers. That’s how the cankers were “cut off at the root” for him. I dare say, if I were witnessing my habitations in past lives, and my own past and future lives as well as those of the people around me, the cankers might come to be completely destroyed in me as well! But I don’t expect that. And as I point out in the essay, I can aspire to live the way of life of Gautama that was a thing “perfect in itself, and a pleasant way of living besides” without enlightenment. You can too, if you catch a glimpse of the “base of consciousness”, the mind, moving as you’re dropping off to sleep. It’s nothing to be afraid of, you know. In fact, helps me fall asleep, all the time! The post is here, love to have all the sword-masters here weigh in...

see that, and raise you some quackers in soup: