Mark Foote

Thanks, Maddie, for giving us all permission to offer opinions and meander around a little bit. Trunk, I gotta say, that I was very interested both in Salvijus's varying personalities, and Maddie's steady keel. I'll be the first to acknowledge that I too have varying personalities, depending on who I'm with and the social context of the moment (or at least sometimes it seems like I have varying personalities, to me)--hopefully I'm true through them all, although not true in the sense that Salvijus meant when he referred to "truth". Salvijus I believe is some denomination of Christian, and so perhaps has other struggles related to his faith. I'm the fool that believes those differences can be cut through clean, so long as all the participants bring a willingness to jump into the unknown together. Can't be just one side that jumps. Not to abandon one's beliefs, but to put more faith in process than end result. Judo was taken out of jiu-jitsu in the 1880's, I believe. According to Wikipedia: Judo rose to prominence for its dominance over established jujutsu schools in tournaments hosted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department (警視庁武術大会, Keishicho Bujutsu Taikai), resulting in its adoption as the department's primary martial art. I really am out of touch with what happened in the Aikido world after the seventies. At that time, I think there was a split between the Ki-Aikido of Koichi Tohei and the Aikido of Kissomaru Ueshiba, Morihei's son, which placed less emphasis on ki and more on technique. My favorite thing of Aikido was a film I saw that included footage of Morihei spinning a jo, a short stick, just spinning it--no kata. He seemed to really enjoy it (I've looked, but I've never found that footage online). I have known friends who took up Aikido and mastered it. It's a lot like Zen, in California--we have a lot of masters, but it's unclear how they will do in the cage, because engaging with real-world opponents was not in their training. That's my opinion, and it's very true (as my father used to say). Me and my dad:

That's unfair, it was clearly the dog!

surrogate, could you give us the lead in as well as the punch line in the future, so those of us who are a bit slow on the draw can actually realize that it's a joke?

Maddie may have already responded to this. Like any other martial art, the heart of the matter in jiu-jitsu is the heart-mind, and how the heart-mind and the force of gravity work together to allow the activity of a relaxed body to embrace the stretch of ligaments. Given that “chin comes from the ligaments”, the essence of these arts is: “t’ing chin, listening to or feeling strength”; “comprehension of chin”... (both quotes from “Three Levels” from “Cheng Tzu’s Thirteen Treatises on Ta’i Chi Chuan”, Cheng Man Ch’ing, trans. Benjamin Pang Jeng Lo and Martin Inn, p 77-78) And one more step, after “comprehension of chin”: “perfect clarity.” (“Master Cheng’s Thirteen Chapters on T’ai-Chi Ch’uan”, Douglas Wile, p 57) I write more about these steps in A Way of Living. I know these things as something useful in the practice of seated meditation, not through the mastery of Tai Chi (I have a second-degree brown belt in judo, for what that's worth). Yes, jiu-jitsu can be more readily transformed into an offensive art than some of the off-shoots of jiu-jitsu, like judo or aikido. In the end, though, the heart of all the martial arts is the same, and is as expressed by the founder of Aikido Morihei Ueshiba: … the spirit of aikido can only be love and harmony. Aikido was born in accordance with the principles and workings of the Universe. (https://aikidojournal.com/2016/09/24/interview-with-morihei-ueshiba-and-kisshomaru-ueshiba/)

About reason, and choice. Relax your mind, relax your mind Make you feel so fine sometime Sometime you got to relax your mind When the light turns green Put your foot down on the gasoline Sometime you got to relax your mind Chorus When the light turns red Put your foot down on the brake instead Sometime you got to relax your mind Chorus When the light turns blue What in the world are you gonna do Sometime you got to relax your mind (Jim Kweskin, "Relax Your Mind") That' the problem, with reason, with truth, and with choice--the light that turns blue.

cat yawns and stretches goes outside, comes back inside rests on her laurels

Ptah-Hotep East Wall:

The first incompleteness theorem states that no consistent system of axioms whose theorems can be listed by an effective procedure (i.e., an algorithm) is capable of proving all truths about the arithmetic of natural numbers. For any such consistent formal system, there will always be statements about natural numbers that are true, but that are unprovable within the system. (Wikipedia, "Gödel's incompleteness theorems") There are arithmetic statements that cannot be proven to be true or false from any consistent system of axioms. I think the physical universe within which we operate is analogous to arithmetic in that regard--there will be statements about the universe that cannot be proven true or false from any consistent set of starting assumptions. What's important to me is my necessity. I went without a lot of things for awhile, and I became certain of what my personal necessity was, going forward. Gautama was revered by his initial set of companions because he was the foremost ascetic among them. In the end, he barely had the strength to pull himself out of a river by a low-hanging branch. After one of the locals nursed him back to health, he came to a fortunate insight: “I know that while my father, the Sakyan, was ploughing, and I was sitting in the cool shade of a rose-apple tree, aloof from pleasures of the senses, aloof from unskilled states of mind, I entered on the first meditation, which is accompanied by initial thought and discursive thought, is born of aloofness, and is rapturous and joyful, and while abiding therein, I thought: ‘Now could this be a way to awakening?’ Then, following on my mindfulness, Aggivissana, there was the consciousness: This is itself the Way to awakening. This occurred to me, Aggivissana: ‘Now, am I afraid of that happiness which is happiness apart from sense-pleasures, apart from unskilled states of mind?’ This occurred to me...: I am not afraid of that happiness which is happiness apart from sense-pleasures, apart from unskilled states of mind.’” (MN 1 246-247, Pali Text Society Vol I p 301) In "Battle for the Mind", Sargant writes about the underlying mechanism of religious conversion and Korean brainwashing. Seems that with continued suggestion and enough stress, starvation, and illness, any normal person can be expected to wake up one morning believing in whatever they've been told is their salvation. It's a mechanism that's built into our physiology. There's necessity in the placement of attention in the movement of breath, particularly as outbreath turns to inbreath and inbreath turns to outbreath. If I take a bent-knee posture for any length of time, that becomes apparent!

Thanks for posting that, liminal_luke. There's a kind of a shock factor going on in the clip, from the birthday song and kiss, to the confrontation over arriving late. Harold confronts the situation by staying real, and true to their own feelings. I think the shock factor is exactly why many people are uncomfortable being around folks whose gender identity is not the majority societal norm. We're not necessarily always present in each moment, we're not necessarily always true to our feelings and able to be spontaneously aware. We don't necessarily like being confronted with our ignorance, with our sensual attachments, with our attachment to being a "self" that is defined and accepted by our peers. And then there's the blurring of the lines that occurs when respected spiritual leaders show their sensual attachments, in spite of their selfless presence. What a world. I expected the shock factor, and I hesitated at first to watch the clip. Good choice, for this discussion.

Something in me, dark and stickyAll the time it's getting strongNo way of dealing with this feelingCan't go on like this too long ... Digging in the dirtStay with me, I need supportI'm digging in the dirtTo find the places I got hurtOpen up the places I got hurt ... The more I look, the more I findAs I close on in, I get so blindI feel it in my head, I feel it in my toesI feel it in my sex, that's the place it goes ... Digging in the dirtStay with me, I need supportI'm digging in the dirtTo find the places I got hurtOpen up the places I got hurt (from "Digging in the Dirt", Peter Gabriel)

When the Ch'an master Ta-chi of Chiang-hsi was studying with the Ch'an master Ta-hui of Nan-yüeh, after intimately receiving the mind seal, he always sat in meditation. Once Nan-yüeh went to Ta-chi and said, "Worthy one, what are you figuring to do, sitting there in meditation? Chiang-hsi said, 'I'm figuring to make a Buddha." At this point, Nan-yüeh took up a tile and began to rub it on a stone. At length, Ta-chi asked, "Master, what are you doing?" Nan-yüeh said, "I'm polishing this to make a mirror." Ta-chi said, "How can you produce a mirror by polishing a tile?" Nan-yüeh replied, "How can you make a Buddha by sitting in meditation?" Ta-chi asked, "Then, what is right?" Nan-yüeh replied, "When a man is driving a cart, if the cart doesn't go, should he beat the cart or beat the ox?" Ta-chi did not reply. Nan-yüeh went on, "Are you studying seated meditation or are you studying seated Buddha?" "If you're studying seated meditation, meditation is not sitting still. If you're studying seated Buddha, Buddha is no fixed mark." "If you're studying seated Buddha, this is killing Buddha." "If you grasp the mark of sitting, you're not reaching its principle." (commentary on "The Lancet of Seated Meditation", "Dogen's Manuals of Zen Meditation", Bielefeldt, 1st ed., p 191--available on Terebess) The first thing Dogen wrote when he came back from China was his "Fukan zazen gi", or "instructions for zazen". He gave detailed, explicit instructions about the posture in sitting. He apparently rewrote "Fukan zazen gi" a number of times, and the instructions he gave were largely based on a Chinese instruction manual he must have copied while he was in China. Goes to the heart of the matter, IMO, that he rewrote the instructions several times. Gautama gave no such instructions, other than: ... gone to a wilderness, or to the root of a tree, or to an empty hut, (a mendicant) sits down cross-legged, sets their body straight, and establishes mindfulness in front of them. (Mahāsatipaṭṭhānasutta—Bhikkhu Sujato, suttacentral dot net) So "sets their body straight." Gautama then talks about thought initial and sustained applied to particular aspects of the body, the feelings, the mind, and the mental states--nothing of the kind of postural instruction that Dogen felt was so important. Dogen does say: Therefore, …take the backward step of turning the light and shining it back. (Eihei Dogen, “Fukan zazengi” Tenpuku version, trans. Carl Bielefeldt, “Dogen’s Manuals of Zen Meditation”, p 176) I do have things I rely on, in order to understand the patterns that develop in kinesthesiology when "making self-surrender the object of thought", I "lay hold of concentration, lay hold of one-pointedness of mind". Beating the horse instead of the cart is letting go of the placement of attention, of any specific location of consciousness, in favor of the free placement of attention/consciousness anywhere in the body. And in that regard, Gautama had plenty to say. Fifty years of rewriting the interplay of instructions in the teachings and modern Western kinesthesiology, to be able to approach the patterns Gautama described. There’s a frailty in the structure of the lower spine, and the movement of breath can place the point of awareness in such a fashion as to engage a mechanism of support for the spine, often in stages. For most people, the fact that these patterns are vague and that the kinesthesiology must yield to the placement of attention is too much to stomach. If you're feeling brave: A Natural Mindfulness.

Wait--wait! Not nuts?!

As I understand it from the sermon of the Great Decease, Mahakasyapa was traveling with a group of monks at the time Gautama the Shakyan, aka "the Buddha", died. Kasyapa proceeded to the town where Gautama's body was on the pyre, awaiting cremation, and he took Gautama's bowl and robe. The Zen story about Gautama holding up a flower and Mahakasyapa receiving wordless transmission--while he was on the road, Kasyapa encountered a naked ascetic holding a Mandarva flower. Seems the Mandarva trees bloomed out of season, after Gautama's death. The ascetic informed Kasyapa of Gautama's death (it's all in the Mahaparinibbana sutta). The bowl and robe were passed down for centuries. Bodhidharma brought them with him to China. The sixth patriarch in China received them from the fifth, but he was the last to receive them. At that point, there were people willing to murder the sixth patriarch for possession of the robe and bowl, their value in authenticating the teaching of the bearer was established and widely known. The sixth patriarch remained in hiding for some time after receiving the artifacts. The tradition of handing on the robe and bowl was discontinued, from that time on. The voice of Gautama the Shakyan in the sermons of the first four sermon volumes of the Pali Canon is unique. He delves into amazing detail about everything, something I think is a characteristic of the teachers of India, and yet his teachings about the ceasing of "determinate thought" in action and the states of concentration I find to be unique in the world. The mindfulness that he taught as his own way of living, similarly unique in the literature of the world. What is taught now of mindfulness and of the significance of the meditative states to daily living has very little to do with the teachings of Gautama the Shakyan, in my estimation. About as much as the teachings of the Catholic church have to do with the teachings recorded in the Gospel of Thomas, which the church chose not to recognize a long time ago in favor of the later teachings recorded in John and the similarly late teachings of Paul. When it comes to eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and proclaiming it to be the way to live forever, however, the Catholic church is way out there ahead of the rest. Jesus quilt-knitting Christ...

No bad children, only bad behaviors.

Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people. W. C. Fields

Regarding femurs and other "relics": Walpurgis Night an abbreviation of Saint Walpurgis Night, also known as Saint Walpurga's Eve (alternatively spelled Saint Walburga's Eve), is the eve of the Christian feast day of Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess in Francia, and is celebrated on the night of 30 April and the day of 1 May. This feast commemorates the canonization of Saint Walpurga and the movement of her relics to Eichstätt, both of which occurred on 1 May 870.[7] Saint Walpurga was hailed by the Christians of Germany for battling pest, rabies, and whooping cough, as well as against witchcraft". Christians prayed to God through the intercession of Saint Walpurga in order to protect themselves from witchcraft, as Saint Walpurga was successful in converting the local populace to Christianity. In parts of Europe, people continue to light bonfires on Saint Walpurga's Eve in order to ward off evil spirits and witches. Others have historically made Christian pilgrimages to Saint Walburga's tomb in Eichstätt on the Feast of Saint Walburga, often obtaining vials of Saint Walburga's oil. It is suggested that Walpurgis Night is linked with older May Day festivals in northern Europe, which also involved lighting bonfires at night, for example the Gaelic festival Beltane. Local variants of Walpurgis Night are observed throughout Northern and Central Europe in the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, and Estonia. In Finland, Denmark and Norway, the tradition with bonfires to ward off the witches is observed as Saint John's Eve, which commemorates the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist. (Wikipedia) I can just imagine the remedies Walpurga applied to cure rabies and whooping cough. Get your Saint Walburga's oil here, nothing like it for making those old femur crowns shine! Meanwhile: Beltane or Bealtaine (/ˈbɛl.teɪn/; Irish pronunciation: [ˈbʲal̪ˠt̪ˠənʲə], approximately /ˈb(j)ɒltɪnə/ B(Y)OL-tin-ə) is the Gaelic May Day festival, marking the beginning of summer. It is traditionally held on 1 May, or about midway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. Historically, it was widely observed in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. ... it marked the beginning of summer and was when cattle were driven out to the summer pastures. Rituals were performed to protect cattle, people and crops, and to encourage growth. Special bonfires were kindled, whose flames, smoke and ashes were deemed to have protective powers. The people and their cattle would walk around or between bonfires, and sometimes leap over the flames or embers. All household fires would be doused and then re-lit from the Beltane bonfire. These gatherings would be accompanied by a feast, and some of the food and drink would be offered to the aos sí. Doors, windows, byres and livestock would be decorated with yellow May flowers, perhaps because they evoked fire. (Wikipedia) Get yer ritual gear on, and proceed with the bonfires!

I'll have to look for it.

Down in the catacombs, with the surrogate corpse...

If you made that up, can you tell me what sherry you are drinking these days, please (I quite like it)?

Mr. Downer Himself: … the Blessed One addressed the monks. “Whoever develops mindfulness of death, thinking, ‘O, that I might live for a day and night… for a day… for the interval that it takes to eat a meal… for the interval that it takes to swallow having chewed up four morsels of food, that I might attend to the Blessed One’s instructions. I would have accomplished a great deal’–they are said to dwell heedlessly. They develop mindfulness of death slowly for the sake of ending the effluents. “But whoever develops mindfulness of death, thinking, ‘O, that I might live for the interval that it takes to swallow having chewed up one morsel of food… for the interval that it takes to breathe out after breathing in, or to breathe in after breathing out, that I might attend to the Blessed One’s instructions. I would have accomplished a great deal’–they are said to dwell heedfully. They develop mindfulness of death acutely for the sake of ending the effluents. “Therefore you should train yourselves: ‘We will dwell heedfully. We will develop mindfulness of death acutely for the sake of ending the effluents.’ That is how you should train yourselves.” (Maraṇassati Sutta AN 6:19, tr Thanissaro Bhikkyu; Pali Text Society AN volume III p 218; I think I prefer I. B. Horner's "cankers" over Thanissaro Bhikkyu's "effluents") And why is that, you ask. I would say that is because the interval that matters is like the one immediately before falling asleep. Something I hope to post to my own site soon: Just before falling asleep, the ability to act by volition shuts down, and consciousness catalyzes activity necessary to the movement of breath by taking place at a particular location or at successive locations in the body. At that time, the placement of consciousness alone coordinates activity, and if the mind should attempt to wrest the placement of consciousness back under control, a hypnic jerk results that interrupts sleep. I sit down first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and I look to experience activity of the body through a placement of attention like that just before sleep. As a matter of daily life, just to touch on such experience, as occasion demands--that's enough. That kind of placement of attention can be experienced in "the interval that it takes to swallow having chewed up one morsel of food", or "the interval that it takes to breathe out after breathing in, or to breathe in after breathing out".

Abbot phone-whips monk enters phone-whip samadhi cat yawns and stretches

I lived above Hamburger Mary's bar and grill in San Francisco in '80's. Mary's was a part of the LGBTQ scene at that time, like the Stud across the street. A quick check reveals Hamburger Mary's lives, they even have a website showing seven or more locations nationwide--in SF, no more. I loved to go to Mary's after work, have a beer, and play the pinball machines in the back. They had a DJ, and sometimes I'd be dancing in the bar, I'd be the only one dancing in the bar. I got hit up by the gay blades a couple of times, I'll admit I kind of resented that they couldn't tell that wasn't my persuasion off the top. I remember the DJ Ted, whom everyone called Tess, telling me that I should try it sometime I might like it. I remember two guys in long dresses in the bar once, I asked them what they were up to, they were just enjoying the experience and I appreciated their complete honesty. Then there's our bringer of test cases, edge cases, the enlightening surrogate corpse, who says: It is wonderful for men to use their dicks as powerful symbols of their masculinity. It is also wonderful for women to use their dicks as powerful symbols of their femininity. There is no contradiction between these. Both can be affirmed. My life since 25 has been about learning to move from the inside out. They do an exercise in Aikido where a practitioner is blindfolded, and the students of the dojo attack the blindfolded individual, sometimes one at a time and sometimes all at once. For me the exercise was instead staying upright on the dance floor at Mabuhay Gardens on Broadway. An example of Mabuhay I've posted before--you can just catch a glimpse of the slamming going on at 44 seconds--those folks aren't bending over the stage 'cause they like bending: One thing I've found is that the only real way to relate to people is from that place of inner awareness, like in the Aikido exercise. Oftentimes there's no there there in the populace at large, as Gertrude Stein once said of Oakland. That makes it hard to relate, especially if someone has decided they "like it" and having a heart be damned. That's prevalent in the culture at large, but especially evident sometimes in the gayer sections of San Francisco. Anyway, I feel I've benefited greatly from the conversation here--thanks Maddie, thanks blue eyes, thanks transmogrified griffin. Thanks, Luke, and that cat wherever it went. Thanks, everybody!

Gautama spoke of cessation, in the context of thoughts initial and sustained with regard to the state of mind: (One) makes up one’s mind: Contemplating impermanence I shall breathe in. Contemplating impermanence I shall breathe out. Contemplating dispassion I shall breathe in. Contemplating dispassion I shall breathe out. Contemplating cessation I shall breathe in. Contemplating cessation I shall breathe out. Contemplating renunciation I shall breathe in. Contemplating renunciation I shall breathe out. (SN V 312, Pali Text Society Vol V p 275-276; tr. F. L. Woodward; masculine pronouns replaced, re-paragraphed) The thoughts he described, he said were a part of his way of living. "Contemplating cessation"--the cessation of the "activities", which are the actions of speech, body, and mind that take place as a result of "determinate thought": …I have seen that the ceasing of the activities is gradual. When one has attained the first trance [first meditative state], speech has ceased. When one has attained the second trance, thought initial and sustained has ceased. When one has attained the third trance, zest has ceased. When one has attained the fourth trance, inbreathing and outbreathing have ceased. ... Both perception and feeling have ceased when one has attained the cessation of perception and feeling. (SN IV 217, Vol IV p 146) I'm convinced Gautama touched on "the cessation of inbreathing and outbreathing" as a regular part of his way of living, that he sat until he attained such a cessation and the subsequent "survey-sign of the concentration", and that by means of the "survey-sign" he could touch on "the cessation of inbreathing and outbreathing" in his contemplation of cessation in daily living. But say--what did you mean by cessation?

That works, although it's a tad more person to person than a heart to indicate a love of what was written. You're so welcome! If you're interested, there are some amazing photos of Clear Lake and Mount Konocti, here (and some duds, lots of duds, actually, but what's good is very good)--if you're not on Facebook, just click the "x" in the upper right-hand corner of the "See More on Facebook" pop-up.

with Issa's blessings the cat goes out, comes back in the doorman gets pissed