Mark Foote

I don't notice one eye tearing when I sit. Sometimes I notice that I feel like I need to drink water or choke, suddenly, and sometimes I notice people coughing as my mind drifts around the room. Usually I can add an awareness around the bottom of my ribs to overcome the choke thing, and I'm so accustomed to the coughing when my mind drifts I don't pay it much heed anymore. You'd think I'd knuckle down so my mind wouldn't drift, wouldn't you!- don't know. Loneliness, go out and find a friend. Don't expect anything from anyone; I think it's expecting something that makes us lonely, like expecting to win makes us a little depressed when we lose. Can't expect to exclude anything and find everything, so the mind goes, and ya gotta dance to sit sometimes. and above all, to thine own self be true... urk, what's that I see before me, a dirk?

gunslingers abound in the heart of the mountains not one at the pass

I wish all the regulars would post a photo from time to time- thanks, Witch! ok, ok- here's one of me (& thanks for what you do, good luck with the show): yers, MF

to leave or to stay that which I must do, is now the rain has lifted

sensuality in the folds of the dress robe precarious heart

"I don't gots to show you no stinkin' badges!" (Treasure of the Sierra Madre) Hey, all, I know Ajahn Amaro up at Redwood Valley once mentioned in a lecture that he thought the former abbott of Gold Mountain Monastery (Land of Ten Thousand Buddhas, in Talmadge, CA) was "tuned in". Amaro related the tale of some monks from his order (Thai forest, Ajahn Cha's order) who attended a lecture by Hua, prior to a trip they had planned to India. Hua said something about "it's necessary to be totally without pride in the land of the Buddha"; later the monks were set upon by bandits in India, and one of the monks was about to have his head chopped off when he apparently remembered Hua's advice, and so offered his neck to the bandit. The bandit tried to cut the monk's head off, but couldn't get his arms to do it, and left. OK, so this proves nothing. I know that I myself was very impressed when Kobun Chino said "take your time with the lotus" back in 1970, in Santa Cruz; it's commonly said that what Zen teachers have to say can be taken as one-to-one advice, even when they are speaking to a group, and this has been the feeling I have had when I have attended the lectures of teachers I respect. Also proves nothing. But I like it. Like Luke Skywalker trusting the force and turning off the computer, I like to feel that what we know consciously is a fraction of what we are really aware of, and on some level we are interconnected. I know that in martial arts, it's a common practice to work with a blindfold. Maybe Zato Ichi did it all through sound, but if you ever see any of those films (with Shintaro Katsu as the blind swordsman), there's a sense that there's something more at work there. I actually believe that, but until the body moves without the direction of mind, there's no way to communicate to someone else what it's about. And how do I prove that that is happening? I don't. But hypnosis clearly demonstrates that it is possible. And if our awareness includes much more than we are conscious of, our actions could come from a pre-conscious place, if we can induce the right state- does it not seem probable? yers truly, Mark a p.s.- thanks to Apepch7, I have completed two animations that turn out just to be illustrations of principles on the walls of the temples of Egypt. Since SF Jane started this thread describing how she realized that the magicians of Egypt had powers similar to those demonstrated by Moses (at least with regard to staffs and snakes), I thought it might be appropriate for me to offer my animations here. I do show the Egyptian illustrations at the close of each animation- The Empty-Handed Hat Ox on a Wooden Bridge

a marriage of sorts the garden bug and my nose mind still yet moving

zen garden nearby still, yet quietly moving insect on my nose

SFJane is talking about moving objects with the mind- my experience is that there is only one object worth moving through mind, and that is the body. That might sound laughable, but I'm not talking about moving the body through the exercise of will by the mind. I am talking about the occurrence of consciousness causing action in the body solely by virtue of consciousness taking place. "Sometimes zazen gets up and walks around", Kobun Chino Otogawa said; "The windy element" moves the body, Buddhaghosa wrote; "to one who knows thus, sees thus, there are no illusions that mine is the doer with respect to this consciousness-informed body", the Gautamid said. "An 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"- from Fuxi, 5th century C.E. "the bridge is flowing, the water is still"- here is a wonderful explanation of this line from a Shunryu Suzuki lecture (edited by Bill Redican): "You may say that your mind is practicing zazen and ignore your body, the practice of your body. Sometimes when you think that you are doing zazen with an imperturbable mind, you ignore the body, but it is also necessary to have the opposite understanding at the same time. Your body is practicing zazen in imperturbability while your mind is moving." Suzuki also said, "only zazen can sit zazen". Now I would say, the body practicing zazen in imperturbability while the mind is moving is zazen that sits zazen, and at such time the action of the body apart from the movement of mind is still. As Kobun said, the action of the body with the movement of mind can sometimes get up and walk. If you want to see it for yourself, then I think you have to arrive at a necessity of breath that depends on the free occurrence of consciousness, on the impact of that consciousness in the stretch already in existence, and on the feeling that is opened through activity out of impact. To arrive at our own necessity, we must witness how aversion to pain, attraction to pleasure, or ignorance of the sensation which is neither can condition the occurrence of consciousness. I am not saying to do anything.

gotta do the laundry when that's done, listen to where rock n roll came from wikipedia on Robert Johnson (gotta wash the clothes...)

recall the Hollies Graham Nash, the Beatles, Cream Skip James, Bob Johnson (Skip James- "I'm so Glad"; Robert Johnson- "Crossroads")

highest after all beneath the pale, no greater shadow on the sun

take time, smell roses study roses, forget them nose to the ground, woof

opposites attract likes don't; matter -> energy, in the weight of stars (I cheat, yes...)

frogs fog-bound song flight rings around the meadow dark one footfall, silence

unveiling what is the sound of frogs- the thick fog encourages them

(ok,ok...) rocks that move, and breathe rivers and mountains, walking me just sitting still

memories again deja vu, revisited- rocks that move, and breathe

no buddha nature I am overjoyed to hear barking all the time

near cascading falls while sipping cafe- standing precariously

you eat, I feel good all up and down my spine, I'm not going to bed

my hair in the wind out at the end of the earth a new day coming

(perversion appears to be rampant in the enlightenment biz- check out the thread on stripping the gurus. Ok, apepch7, all is forgiven, come home... ha ha... les'see now, which way is home) sell it on ebay buy it for a song- buck truth naked bare bottomed