Mark Foote

In my experience, the lotus is about isolating the motion of the sacrum. I like John Upledger's explanation of that motion, based on his own research and the theories of cranial-sacral osteopathy: the skull bones, the spine, and the sacrum flex and extend with changes in the fluid volume of the dural fluid (ten cycles a minute, Upledger says here Shareguide Upledger interview). Isolating the motion of the sacrum is important, because the fundamental postural activity is generated by the stretch of the ligaments that connect the sacrum to the pelvis. There are ligaments between the sacrum and the wings of the pelvis, ligaments between the sacrum and the sit-bones (the sacrospinous ligaments), and ligaments between the sacrum and the front underside of the pelvis on the left and on the right (the sacro-tuberous ligaments). Stretched ligaments can generate muscular activity to relieve their stretch, without any exercise of volition; when the ligaments are paired there's a phenomena called "reciprocal innervation" that arises as ligaments alternate stretch and activity from side to side. The way to generate feeling for stretch and activity is to attend to the place of occurrence of consciousness, as necessary to realize the breath in or the breath out, and relax.

A circular moon the regular cries of geese nothing left to say (three things we love)

waking to a dream stomach rumbling, empty dream dreams and memory (partial patch of incomplete gong sound)

half empty of sound half empty of life, I sit waking to a dream

Lomistick, I'm wondering what you feel in the vicinity of the sacrum when you have this sensation. I pretty much sit with motion forward and back, side to side, and around all the time, and a lot of my practice is recognizing how the place of occurrence of consciousness leads the balance of the body to let weight rest on the ligaments that connect the sacrum to the pelvis (sacro-iliac, sacro-spinous, and sacro-tuberous), to satisfy the length of the breath in or out. Weight resting on ligaments creates activity with the cranial-sacral rhythm; key for me is the recognition of stretch as consciousness occurs, and relaxation into the impact/activity and feeling I have. What am I doing?- nothing; what's the point?- a witness of how attachment to the pleasant, aversion from the painful, or ignorance of the neutral feeling can condition the place of occurrence of consciousness frees the place of occurrence of consciousness, and in that freedom is the knowledge, I have done what there was to be done. More or less. HA HA!

Hey, Bagua-kid me not! What's it like for jobs in Reno right now- guess we can start dis'n Blasto now, I think he must be unable to reply...

a sudden presence basking in the autumn sun reeds clatter and bend

I'm looking for work in Northern California myself, but TTB makes a great break from Craigslist. If I may make a suggestion: when I write for TTB, I try for the most part to write to organize my thoughts for my own reference. I don't think everyone wants to take it to the extreme that I do, which is copying some of the things I write on other people's blogs and TTB to my own blog for my future reference, but I think it's important to always write first and foremost for myself. That way, 1) the exercise is still of benefit even if there are no responses; 2) I am being creative at finding a way to educate myself to realize my part in society (ie, find a job, here). ok, back to Craigslist

Would'a liked to have read that article, looks like the page is discontinued. I'm remembering something I read that said that certain genes don't kick in until in the presence of certain environmental factors. Here's an article, dated 2003: Can dormant genes be activated by environmental factors? Here's one from September 2010: Cells Get Stressed, Too from the latter: "Environmental factors such as pollution, bacterial toxins and tobacco smoke can turn on genes in cells that are supposed to be off, said researchers from the Biotech Research and Innovation Centre at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark." I live in a house with a six-year old, whose teacher demanded the child receive treatment for ADHD. My six-year-old friend is reported to have better concentration in school now, and I think she is more focused here at home; maybe too much so, who can say. College kids are taking ritalin to pass exams, so I read. I drink a lot of coffee, which would on the surface seem to be a more organic alternative; lots of nice things said about coffee with respect to diabetes and colon cancer, I guess. I lived with a guy who was diagnosed as bipolar, or schizophrenic. He went nuts in his 19th year, which is pretty common among those who become schizophrenic (flipping out in their late teens, that is). This commonality alone makes me think there is some genetic or genetic/environmental basis to the disease. I'm not sure that avoiding drugs is going to be all that healthy either. As I've mentioned before on TTB, Dr. Michael Shames in Marin, California was part of a team that studied the population of a small town east of San Francisco that was exposed to a "non-toxic" chemical plume from a Chevron plant. Most of the runny noses and respiratory complaints were resolved within weeks of the release, but his team discovered that the immune systems of the people exposed remained kicked into high gear a year or so after the release. Dr. Shames concluded this was why many of his patients who were border-line low thyroid seemed to benefit from a prescription for thyroid hormone. Hashimoto syndrome is a depression of the activity of the thyroid gland because of hyper-immune system activity. The endocrine balance may be affected in other ways. Dr. John Lee, also of Marin, found that his patients benefited from doses of the hormone progesterone that were at levels within the range of normal human production; his patients saw an overall health benefit, not just with regard to women's post-menopausal difficulties. Another doctor whose name I can't recall saw the same thing using physiological (as opposed to pharmacological) doses of hydro-cortisol. Both Lee and the doctor prescribing hydro-cortisol were careful to use something molecularly identical to the human hormone, in low doses; progesterone is even available in skin creams without a prescription, it's absorbed transdermally. Lee and the doctor prescribing hydro-cortisol testified to the general improvement in health of their patients, yet both could only conjecture at why. I think Shames has the answer, and because our environment is so thoroughly saturated with pesticides and other "non-toxics" (more pesticides are used in the suburbs than on the farms, so I've read), there's no way out of a space-ship Earth mentality at this point. We're all an experiment, better hope we can figure out ways to stay alive until we get turned around toward Eden again.

I finally finished reading this thread; many wonderful bits and pieces, here. Somebody mentioned the five elements paired with ascending, descending, contracting, expanding, and rotating, and I have been thinking about something similar in my own practice- but not quite. My concern is pitch, yaw, and roll in my sense of location. You could say that this is due to the influence of the cranial-sacral rhythm on my sense of balance, as consciousness takes place. Pitch, that's the nose of the plane up or down, ascending or descending, extension or flexion of the spine. Yaw, that's the nose of the plane left or right; that's a little harder parallel, yet I suspect there is some left and right involved as the cranial-sacral rhythm causes the limbs to rotate inward with spinal flexion and outward with spinal extension. Why there is left and right is a good queston; I would guess because the sacral movements stretch the sacro-spinous ligaments and generate movement side-to-side, with consequent activity in the hamstrings and quads, and this activity stretches the ilio-tibial tracts on either side and causes activity in the sartorius muscles. Roll, that's the body of the plane rotating on the center-line, the cranial-sacral rhythm rotating the sacrum opposite to the rotation of the pelvis through the stretch of the sacro-tuberous ligaments and the consequent activity of the piriformis muscles. The rotation of the sacrum effects activity in the extensors, which move the temporal bones and the parietals, and thereby affect the nerves that control the cranial-sacral rhythm (on the sagittal suture). "Exhaling focus heaven": The cranial-sacral rhythm enters into the long or short of exhalation, and focuses the sense of location in the occurrence of consciousness. "Inhaling focus earth": The long or short of inhalation and the focused sense of location in the occurrence of consciousness allows feedback between the cranial-sacral rhythm and the activity of the body that affects the nerves that control the cranial-sacral rhythm. This is also the miraculous power and marvelous activity of drawing water and chopping wood, but as Yuanwu said: "When you arrive at last at towering up like a wall miles high, you will finally know that there arent so many things." (Zen Letters, Teachings of Yuanwu; trans. by Cleary & Cleary, page 83, ©1994 by J. C. Cleary and Thomas Cleary) I know, far-fetched, the parallel with the five elements...

These two responses are wonderful to me, so why spoil a good mystery! No, we pile it on, pile it on- regarding the first: regarding the second: how about xingyi, "shape-mind", isn't it? I understand that "sesshin" translates as "touch mind". The sense of location moves, when I can accept that I'm in motion out of the stretch of ligaments; this is the mind that touches. How does the cranial-sacral rhythm enter into the movement of breath?- in the long and short of inhalation and exhalation, that places the mind. Isis with the vertebrae at the nose of Nefertari. Zazen gets up and walks around, the windy element moves the body, the extension of the mind of compassion in the ten directions is the infinity of ether... qi is maybe intimately connected with the infinity of ether, not a definition, oh well!

damn the torpedoes pass the peas, pass the gravy put away the tears

did I miss something what waits for me, do I know? damn the torpedoes

To teach each other, I believe we must each teach ourselves. If I ramble, I do so in part to strike out into something unfamiliar, to give my unconscious a chance to slip a word in edgewise. That way I continue to like to write, and find it valuable, like some kind of crystal ball from which we may all take something useful. The suspend the crown I have yet to enjoy. A rigor up the spine I have experienced, that closes my jaw (which is usually open in concentration, like a child sticking out their tongue as they try to work with their hands). Yet I am cognizant of Foyan's 12th century advice, in China; there are two illnesses, he said: looking for a mule while riding a mule, and when riding a mule unable to dismount. Better, he said, never to get on the mule. I wish I had that much choice about it! For me, the place of occurrence of consciousness is ultimately the action of the moment, no other. I read the other day that Dogen said, "if you can't find truth where you are now, where will you find it?". That means, the sense of place I already have, the stretch I am already in even when I'm relaxed, is the action; all I need do is allow the two respirations to do their thing with the place of consciousness, realize the feeling out of the impact of consciousness, look to be where I am now. Can't miss.

Sometimes it's so hard to hear in another person's writing things I understand with different terminology, but the pelvis "sliding" and hanging down on the backs of the femur heads is ringing a bell with me. I too look to a feeling roughly between the ilio-sacral joints and the sit-bones of the pelvis, and when I have feeling there, the pelvis shifts slightly on the femurs. Have you seen Calais-Germaine's "Anatomy of Movement"?- written by a dancer, she has illustrations of how the obturators can "hammock" the pelvis off the hips. Here's my attempt at illustrating the same, it's a view from below the pelvis showing the obturators running below the pelvis, then up to the back of the femur (Calais-Germaine has a lovely little side view of how the two obturators therefore pull down on the femur as they contract, which raises the pelvis off the hips): Lately I spend time appreciating the side to side rock that can happen when I sit on the sit-bones, balancing around the sacrum. Even though I can't exactly find the sacrotuberous ligaments, having feeling for the diagonals there and looking to rest weight along those lines allows me a rotation with a relaxed uprightness; the teeth tend toward touching and I feel like it's a good stretch for me. Have to forget it, now, don't I!

which way did I go? 'round the usual suspects! damn the torpedoes

Rainbow_vein, that's amazing! No so clear for me, though the last few days I have been reminded of Chen Man-Ch'ing's practice description for the stage of man, mainly: relax from the shoulders to the wrist, from the hip joint to the heel, and from the sacrum to the headtop (in the Ben Lo/Martin Inn translation, this is "relax the ligaments"; I don't think that's actually possible, as ligaments stretch and resile but it's muscles that contract and relax- nevertheless, I take the meaning as resting weight on the ligaments in such a way as to realize reciprocal activity in associated postural muscles). So your practice is very clear, as to the relationship of the movement of breath and the free movement of the sacrum. You are describing how it feels, and a big trick for me is that the sense of place as consciousness occurs can cause the stretch in existence to generate activity to align the spine and produce feeling. This is a big trick because if I put all my energy into feeling the breath or the movement of the sacrum, I will finally lose actual feeling for having directed the occurrence of consciousness to the particular place. So I think to rely instead on the movement of breath and the cranial-sacral rhythm to place consciousness, and I look to realize impact as consciousness occurs, impact and feeling. Is this natural? It is really just staying with what's happening, not a gaining practice. My posture is pretty bent, usually, so I envy you the clarity of "up the spine". I guess the reason I mentioned learning to dance is because that's where I sometimes feel an uprightness in the spine both on the inhale and the exhale, yet the feeling is intimately tied to resting the weight of my body on the sacrospinous and sacrotuberous ligaments and allowing movement from that stretch. At least, that's the way I feel it.

My dancing usually (hopefully!) gets better as I go, and better when I dance with another or with others. I learned to dance at Mabuhay gardens in San Francisco in the eighties, doing the soft slam to the garage bands Dirk Dirksen could hire (punk and new wave history, here: Mabuhay Gardens). In my estimation, the tan-t'ien concerns the pivot of weight around which the psoas and extensors reciprocate involuntarily. This reciprocation is healthy when the sacrum moves freely in the cranial-sacral rhythm, the movement of breath is relaxed, and consciousness takes place spontaneously (ji, qi, shen?). The only thing that really accumulates is the sense of place as consciousness occurs, and the place that consciousness occurs tends to favor the tan-t'ien at some point, although the continuation of the sense of place can exclude nothing and is actually not continuous- how do you like them apples!

the way then wu wei one foot, and then no other night iris, blooming

I read this and I think, yes, and yes; yes. I'm gonna be no help to myself at all, that way! Tai Chi teachers do, I think, speak of accumulating and storing chi. I never heard of ji until I came to TTB, but it makes perfect sense to me, because of the importance of the sacrum and the sacral ligaments. Chen Man-Ch'ing spoke of the chi "overflowing" the tan-t'ien and penetrating the tail-bone, then rushing up the spine to the top of the head. This, he said, should not be forced, and is the thing for which a teacher or at least another student to consult would be nice. I have read books that talk about the chi returning from the top of the head to the tan-t'ien, but my experience is that when I have a continuity of practice, there is a single-pointedness of mind that wasn't there before. For me it's important to see these practices in the context of my own suffering. If I have attachment to, aversion from, or if I ignore the place of consciousness as consciousness occurs, I suffer. If I witness dependent causation as consciousness takes place, I am freed, even though I do nothing. Ji, Chi, Shen is only a river flowing underground, and only the physician that must heal themselves need concern themselves with such, as it will ruin what most consider a normal life. So they say, and I believe it's true.

Don't know about the rest, but- "Nourish a MIND by paying attention to nowhere" I think is a description of nurturing single-pointedness of mind, place of mind as the source of action as opposed to volition in mind as the source of action. Paying attention to nowhere is also excluding nothing from awareness, that's another way of saying it. "it is something much more"- it is being realized as action out of the occurrence of consciousness, that is to say: out of the place of occurrence of consciousness, out of the impact of consciousness on the fascial stretch already in existence, and out of the feeling generated by activity caused by stretch (the fascia and ligaments can generate nerve impulses to cause associated muscles to contract to relieve their stretch, and reciprocal activity generated by the balance of the body as consciousness takes place can align the spine and joints to open particular feeling). woof, just drank up the Yangtze in one gulp...

best not tread just there best invite all things to read best take care for all