Mark Foote

But does a dog have buddha-nature? (couple of famous cases about that)

Looking again and again at the imperceptible mind, You come to know your own undeluded nature. May you abide undiluted by artificial fixation without wavering, just like space. (A short Mahamudra prayer composed by Shamar Rinpoche, and in his own handwriting, June 18, 1987; Halscheid, Germany) That, from the forward of the book.

So, when you practice zazen, your mind should be concentrated in your breathing and this kind of activity is the fundamental activity of the universal being. If so, how you should use your mind is quite clear. Without this experience, or this practice, it is impossible to attain the absolute freedom. (“Thursday Morning Lectures”, November 4th 1965, Los Altos; emphasis added) Suzuki doesn't explain, but I do, here. In brief: The mind is “concentrated in the breathing” when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention. If the presence of mind continues the placement of attention by the movement of breath, then the role of the mind is clear–that’s the way I read the transcript. ... When the location of attention can shift anywhere in the body as a function of the movement of breath, and the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation follows solely from the location of attention, there is a feeling of freedom.

I think of cessation in connection with the activities: And what are the activities? These are the three activities:–those of deed, speech and mind. These are activities. (SN II 3, Pali Text Society vol II p 4) …I have seen that the ceasing of the activities is gradual. When one has attained the first trance, 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, Pali Text Society vol IV p 146) Conditioned by ignorance activities come to pass; conditioned by activities consciousness, conditioned by consciousness name-and-shape, conditioned by name-and-shape sense, conditioned by sense contact, conditioned by contact feeling, conditioned by feeling craving, conditioned by craving grasping, conditioned by grasping becoming, conditioned by becoming birth, conditioned by birth old age-and-death, grief, lamenting, suffering, sorrow, despair come to pass. Such is the uprising of this entire mass of ill. But from the utter fading away and ceasing of ignorance [comes] ceasing of the activities; from ceasing of activities ceasing of consciousness; ... from ceasing of birth old age-and-death, grief, lamenting, suffering, sorrow, despair cease. Such is the ceasing of this entire mass of ill. (SN II 2, Pali Text Society Vol II pg 2) A lovely lecture from a woman of the Order--not Gautama, but I think insightful (the editors of Majjhima have Gautama agreeing with what she said after the fact, of course): ... is a tendency to attachment to be got rid of from every pleasant feeling? Is a tendency to repugnance to be got rid of from every painful feeling? Is a tendency to ignorance to be got rid of from every neutral feeling? No friend Visakha... In this case... (a person), aloof from pleasures of the senses, aloof from unskilled states of mind, enters on and abides in the first meditation, which is accompanied by initial thought and discursive thought, is born of aloofness, and is rapturous and joyful. It is by this means that (one) gets rid of attachment, no tendency to attachment lies there. In this case... (a person) reflects thus: 'Surely I, entering on it, will abide in that plane which the (nobles), entering on, are now abiding in. From setting up a yearning for the incomparable Deliverances there arises, as a result of the yearning, distress; it is by this means that (one) gets rid of repugnance, no tendency to repugnance lies latent there. In this case... (a person), by getting rid of that joy, and by getting rid of anguish, by the going down of (their) former pleasures and sorrows, enters on and abides in the fourth meditation which has neither anguish nor joy and which is entirely purified by equanimity and mindfulness. It is by this means that (one) gets rid of ignorance, no tendency to ignorance lies latent there. (MN I 303-304, PTS vol. I p 366-367, "The Miscellany (Lesser)", attributed to the nun Dhammadinna) Just throwing that out there, to cement my unpopularity. Is cessation a natural thing? Of course! Then again: ... for most people it is rather difficult to sit, you know, just to sit. (“The Background of Shikantaza”; Shunryu Suzuki, Sunday, February 22, 1970, San Francisco; transcript from shunryusuzuki.com)

A very unpopular question.

Took me a lot of years, of always having it in mind and sitting mostly half-lotus. Dennis Merkel, Zen teacher who at one point in time was associated with the L. A. Zen Center, says he sat half-lotus for a couple of decades, then full-lotus for a couple, and now Burmese for a decade or so (ankles on the ground, one leg in front of the others). He has transmission in both the Rinzai and Soto traditions, if I understand correctly. I should confess, when I did that five-day sesshin at Jikoji Zen Center, they pretty much alternated 40- and 30- minute sittings, and I had to uncork my lotus at about 35 minutes every time on the 40 minute sittings. Very embarassing, but I was determined not to hurt my knees, and I consistently felt something in my knees at about 35 minutes. Last I heard, the periods at L. A. Zen Center sesshins are 35 minutes, except for one initial 50 minute sitting--guess I'm not the only one. Maybe a couple of years after that five-day sesshin, I began to feel something in my knees when I was out walking, and I decided to forget about the lotus and 40-minutes and just go with a sloppy half-lotus for 25 minutes. My knees returned to normal. Lately I sit beyond 25 minutes a lot, in the half-lotus (or Burmese, if my ankle falls off the opposite calf, as it seems to do with the right leg up). Seems like I have to finish the time I feel is mandatory, before I can "just sit". But my sitting has changed. I have a better idea, how to turn over the reins: The presence of mind can utilize the location of attention to maintain the balance of the body and coordinate activity in the movement of breath, without a particularly conscious effort to do so. There can also come a moment when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention at a certain location in the body, or at a series of locations, with the ability to remain awake as the location of attention shifts retained through the exercise of presence. 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. I don't know what Apech means by "look at your mind", but that's what I'm doing--looking at the location of my awareness, instead of the contents. When “doing something” has ceased, and there is “not one particle of the body” that cannot receive the placement of attention, then the placement of attention is free to shift as necessary in the movement of breath. The difficulty is that most people will lose consciousness before they cede activity to the location of attention–they lose the presence of mind with the placement of attention, because they can’t believe that action in the body is possible without “doing something”. Turn it around, let the "where" not the "who" act past 20 minutes or so (sooner if you can), and your knees will thank you. Issho Fujita, demonstrating a relationship between "one-pointedness of mind" and the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation in zazen: Shunryu Suzuki, describing to his students how they could avoid pain in their legs in sitting: If you are going to fall, you know, from, for instance, from the tree to the ground, the moment you, you know, leave the branch you lose your function of the body. But if you don’t, you know, there is a pretty long time before you reach to the ground. And there may be some branch, you know. So you can catch the branch or you can do something. But because you lose function of your body, you know [laughs], before you reach to the ground, you may lose your conscious[ness]. (“To Actually Practice Selflessness”, Shunryu Suzuki; August Sesshin Lecture; San Francisco, August 6, 1969) Dogen: When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. ("Genjo Koan", tr Tanahashi) The "where", as the source of the activity of the body from outbreath to inbreath, and from inbreath to outbreath: When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point… (ibid) ... the Blessed One addressed the monks. "Whoever develops mindfulness of death, thinking, 'O, that I might live for a day & 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. (AN 6.19 PTS: A iii 303; Maranassati Sutta: Mindfulness of Death (1) tr Thanissaro Bhikkhu)

I was unsatisfied with my mind, in high school. In my senior year, a friend pointed me to the illustrations of zazen in the back of "The Three Pillars of Zen", by Kapleau, and I started to try to sit cross-legged on the floor for five or ten minutes at a stretch. A few years later, another friend took me to hear the lectures of a Zen teacher from Japan. Sitting was still very uncomfortable for me after about twenty minutes, but I persevered. The advice I got from that teacher was "take your time with the lotus". At one point I could sit about 35 minutes in the lotus, did so through a five day sesshin, but now I only sit a sloppy half-lotus, and often only for 25 minutes. Pretty much have sat in the mornings when I first get up, and at night before I go to bed, for all of my adult life now. The sitting has been the teacher, in my life, and I'm grateful every day.

Ok, that is actually different from what I said, when I said: But does the action of the body, and possibly of the mind, proceed from the experience of "just is" without departing the experience? That's the real test. You quote Thinley Norbu Rinpoche's commentary on the Ngondro from the treasure texts of Dudjom Lingpa: So therefore, the pure way of abiding in unconditioned wisdom and the way that appearances manifest are evenly pure. This is called the wisdom of eveness. He does not say that the way of abiding in unconditioned wisdom and the way that appearances manifest are the same thing, he only says they are evenly pure. That's the distinction I'm trying to make: they are separate, although I don't experience (or I haven't experienced) the complete separation that he seems to describe.

I'm honored, but were you responding to: Let's get SO unpopular! Or were you responding to: As (one) dwells in body contemplating body, ardent… that desire to do, that is in body, is abandoned. By the abandoning of desire to do, the Deathless is realized. So with feelings… mind… mental states… that desire to do, that is in mind-states, is abandoned. By the abandoning of the desire to do, the Deathless is realized. (SN V 182, Pali Text Society V p 159) I'm guessing you were actually responding to Gautama the Shakyan, and in particular to Gautama's emphasis on a cessation of the desire "to do". I'm talking about how action can take place in the absence of volition, that to me is the verification part of "practice and verification". You're talking about how the lack of desire results in a particular state of mind, as far as I can tell. Here's a more modern treatment--notice that there is an action that is taking place, and the emphasis is on the action, even though desire has presumably been abandoned and a wide-open state of mind has presumably been realized: But usually in counting breathing or following breathing, you feel as if you are doing something, you know– you are following breathing, and you are counting breathing. This is, you know, why counting breathing or following breathing practice is, you know, for us it is some preparation– preparatory practice for shikantaza because for most people it is rather difficult to sit, you know, just to sit. (“The Background of Shikantaza”; Shunryu Suzuki, Sunday, February 22, 1970, San Francisco; transcript from shunryusuzuki.com) "Blown out"--necessity in the movement of breath places attention, and the activity of the body follows solely from the location of attention (which is not fixed). The only good thing Buddhaghosa ever wrote: The air element that courses through all the limbs and has the characteristic of moving and distending, being founded upon earth, held together by water, and maintained by fire, distends this body. And this body, being distended by the latter kind of air, does not collapse, but stands erect, and being propelled by the other (motile) air, it shows intimation and it flexes and extends and it wriggles the hands and feet, doing so in the postures comprising of walking, standing, sitting and lying down. So this mechanism of elements carries on like a magic trick… (Buddhaghosa, “Visuddhimagga” XI, 92; tr. Bhikku Nanamoli, Buddhist Publication Society p 360)

Is that different from what I said?

But does the action of the body, and possibly of the mind, proceed from the experience of "just is" without departing the experience? That's the real test.

I think about these things a lot... if the cat brings me a rat, I will be sure to place it between my teeth, in hopes that the Jabberwocky will pass go and proceed directly to community chest. But seriously. Some voodoo fun from the Zen tradition: In the Yagyu-ryu (a school of swordsmanship), there is a secret teaching called “Seikosui”. Yagyu Toshinaga, a master of the Yagyu-ryu, taught that it was especially important to concentrate vital energy and power in the front of the body around the navel and at the back of the body in the koshi (pelvic) area when taking a stance. In other words, he means to fill the whole body with spiritual energy. In his “Nikon no Shimei” (“Mission of Japan”), Hida Haramitsu writes: “The strength of the hara alone is insufficient, the strength of the koshi alone is not sufficient, either. We should balance the power of the hara and the koshi and maintain equilibrium of the seated body by bringing the center of the body’s weight in line with the center of the triangular base of the seated body.” … we should expand the area ranging from the coccyx to the area right behind the navel in such a way as to push out the lower abdomen, while at the same time contracting the muscles of the anus. … It may be the least trouble to say as a general precaution that strength should be allowed to come to fullness naturally as one becomes proficient in sitting. We should sit so that our energy increases of itself and brims over instead of putting physical pressure on the lower abdomen by force. (“An Introduction to Zen Training: A Translation of Sanzen Nyumon”, Omori Sogen, tr. Dogen Hosokawa and Roy Yoshimoto, Tuttle Publishing, pg 59, parentheticals added) I believe in Gautama's teaching, the "brims over" described above is a feeling that belongs to the second concentration: … imagine a pool with a spring, but no water-inlet on the east side or the west side or on the north or on the south, and suppose the (rain-) deva supply not proper rains from time to time–cool waters would still well up from that pool, and that pool would be steeped, drenched, filled and suffused with the cold water so that not a drop but would be pervaded by the cold water; in just the same way… (one) steeps (their) body with zest and ease… (AN III 25-28, Pali Text Society Vol. III p 18-19) Wait for it...

It's good to be able to relinquish activity and the identification of self with an actor. Sometimes that might involve reflection on impermanence, and some detachment from the pleasant and unpleasant--maybe even from the neutral of sensation. (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) I know, I know--get outta here!

Got an unpopular take on that for you, old3bob (I'm expanding, Apech!). In the chapter on inbreathing and outbreathing in Samyutta Nikaya V, there's an account of the time Gautama went on retreat for three weeks, and only the monk who brought his food was allowed near him. When he came back from the retreat, he noticed there were fewer monks than when he left. He asked his attendant Ananda about it, and Ananda reminded Gautama that before he left, Gautama had advised the monks to practice the meditation on the unlovely (aspects of the body). Consequently, said Ananda, as many as a score of monks a day had begun "taking the knife". Gautama had Ananda gather the monks, and he taught them what he said was his own way of living--basically, a particular set of thoughts connected with the four arisings of mindfulness. But get this--that way of living, he said, was "a thing perfect in itself, and a pleasant way of living besides" (no enlightenment necessary). What I understand from that teaching is that I can knock myself out, looking to turn a corner and be a different person, or I can accept a way of living marked by thoughts initial and sustained, which is something like the way I live now. Well--he observed such thought with the placement of awareness by necessity ("one-pointedness of mind"), and in connection with an inbreath or an outbreath. He did so "most of the time", and "especially in the rainy season"--that's how it was for Gautama. The only thing I really need to master is the ability to arrive at the cessation of habit and volition in the activity of breath, such that I can experience cessation in daily living, when the occasion demands--to master "just sitting", as it were. I find that the stage of concentration that lends itself to practice in the moment is dependent on the tendency toward the free placement of attention. As I wrote in my last post: When a presence of mind is retained as the placement of attention shifts, then the natural tendency toward the free placement of attention can draw out thought initial and sustained, and bring on the stages of concentration. Shunryu Suzuki said: To enjoy our life– complicated life, difficult life– without ignoring it, and without being caught by it. Without suffer from it. That is actually what will happen to us after you practice zazen. (“To Actually Practice Selflessness”, August Sesshin Lecture Wednesday, August 6, 1969, San Francisco) 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. ("To Enjoy Our Life")

Let's get SO unpopular! As (one) dwells in body contemplating body, ardent… that desire to do, that is in body, is abandoned. By the abandoning of desire to do, the Deathless is realized. So with feelings… mind… mental states… that desire to do, that is in mind-states, is abandoned. By the abandoning of the desire to do, the Deathless is realized. (SN V 182, Pali Text Society V p 159)

Moved in solitude rocks on the Mojave floor nice trick to match that

Let the mind be present without an abode. (from the Diamond Sutra, translation by Venerable Master Hsing Yun from “The Rabbit’s Horn: A Commentary on the Platform Sutra”, Buddha’s Light Publishing p 60)

lord love a duck... sorry for the dupe.

I, for one, was most unhappy with my mind by my early teens. That's how I came to accept "Focus on body first and let your thoughts take care of themselves" (cited above by Apech as a part of an unpopular opinion). At seventeen, I learned how to sit zazen from the diagrams at the back of "Three Pillars of Zen". That was reminiscent of the way I initially learned judo, out of a Bruce Tegner book. When I actually started in at a judo dojo, the principal instructor called his instructing assistants over to witness me demonstrating what I had learned. Years later I found out they were highly amused, although they didn't show it at the time (fortunately. I owe them all a great debt!). My posture will never be exemplary, I'm reconciled to that. And much of what I've learned about internal arts has come out of books, still. But I agree, there's a love of life, a happiness in living that's natural, a happiness the denial of which is downright unhealthy. What I found through the seemingly unnatural practice of sitting on the floor with my legs crossed is that the body can place the mind, out of necessity. And understanding that such placement is a natural thing in the rhythm of consciousness, I have mostly reconciled with that same mind that left me so dismayed as a teenager--my mind knows what to do, about one thing. Unnatural to sit a posture that's been around since the Egyptians (you knew I'd get around to it, Apech), or... simply unpopular. You decide... From the tomb of Ptah-Hotep, 24th century B.C.E.

Ok, now the Dao Bums mini-editor decides to split! From my own writing, about the above: ... consciousness of the stretch and activity behind the lower back and in front of the contents of the lower abdomen can become consciousness of stretch and activity behind the sacrum and tailbone and in the vicinity of the genitalia. Such experience is independent of the sex of the individual, and is offered here as a recurrent condition of practice. (From the Gospel of Thomas) From my writing: ... These days... I am practicing some kind of scales, as it were. Gautama outlined the feeling of four states, the initial three and then the “purity by the pureness of [one’s] mind”, the fourth. I’ve described that “pureness of mind” as what remains when “doing something” ceases, and I wrote: When “doing something” has ceased, and there is “not one particle of the body” that cannot receive the placement of attention, then the placement of attention is free to shift as necessary in the movement of breath. The rest of the scales are looking for a grip where attention takes place in the body, as “one-pointedness” turns and engenders a counter-turn (without losing the freedom of movement of attention); finding ligaments that control reciprocal innervation in the lower body and along the spine through relaxation, and calming the stretch of ligaments; and discovering hands, feet, and teeth together with “one-pointedness” (“bite through here”, as Yuanwu advised; “then we can walk together hand in hand”, as Yuanwu’s teacher Wu Tsu advised). ("To Enjoy Our Life") When there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded by "purity by the pureness of mind", then there can be "an image in place of an image". More on the state that proceeds that "purity by the pureness of mind", the state where "you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot": Gautama characterized the third state of concentration as follows: … free from the fervor of zest, (one) enters and abides in the third musing; (one) steeps and drenches and fills and suffuses this body with a zestless ease so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded by this zestless ease. … just as in a pond of blue, white, and red water-lillies, the plants are born in water, grow in water, come not out of the water, but, sunk in the depths, find nourishment, and from tip to root are steeped, drenched, filled and suffused with cold water so that not a part of them is not pervaded by cold water; even so, (one) steeps (one’s) body in zestless ease. (AN III 25-28, Pali Text Society Vol. III pg 18-19) In my experience, the base of consciousness can shift to a location that reflects involuntary activity in the limbs and in the jaw and skull. The feeling for activity in the legs, the arms, and the skull is indeed like an awareness of three varieties of one plant grown entirely below a waterline. The experience does have an ease, does require equanimity with regard to the senses, and generally resembles a kind of waking sleep. (The Early Record) Gautama taught that zest ceases in the third concentration, while the feeling of ease continues: (One) enters & remains in the third (state), of which the Noble Ones declare, ‘Equanimous & mindful, (one) has a pleasant abiding.’ (Samadhanga Sutta, tr. Thanissaro Bhikkhu, AN 5.28 PTS: A iii 25; Pali Text Society, see AN Book of Threes text I,164; Vol II p 147) That’s a recommendation of the third concentration, especially for long periods. Nevertheless, I find that the stage of concentration that lends itself to practice in the moment is dependent on the tendency toward the free placement of attention. As I wrote in my last post: When a presence of mind is retained as the placement of attention shifts, then the natural tendency toward the free placement of attention can draw out thought initial and sustained, and bring on the stages of concentration. ... 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. ("To Enjoy Our Life")

Okay… So, have your hands in the cosmic mudra, 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 centre 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 https://nyoho.com/2018/09/15/no-struggle-zazen-yojinki-part-6/) Koun Franz referred to a "base of consciousness" that can move away from the head. Gautama spoke of a "one-pointedness of mind" that was synonymous with concentration. Herein… the (noble) disciple, making self-surrender the object of (their) thought, lays hold of concentration, lays hold of one-pointedness. (The disciple), 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 v 198, Pali Text Society vol V p 174; “noble” substituted for Ariyan) Gautama spoke of "determinate thought" as action, and of the result of determinate thought as "the activities": …I say that determinate thought is action. When one determines, one acts by deed, word, or thought. (AN III 415, Pali Text Society Vol III p 294) And what are the activities? These are the three activities:–those of deed, speech and mind. These are activities. (SN II 3, Pali Text Society vol II p 4) He spoke of the cessation of "action": And what… is the ceasing of action? That ceasing of action by body, speech, and mind, by which one contacts freedom,–that is called ‘the ceasing of action’. (SN IV 145, Pali Text Society Vol IV p 85) When one has attained the first trance, 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, Pali Text Society vol IV p 146) Gautama charted a course to the cessation of "determinate thought" in action, first in the activity of speech, then in the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation, and finally in the activity of the mind in feeling and perceiving. Gautama's enlightenment was his insight into the four truths--that came out of "the cessation of feeling and perceiving". No small feat, to experience a cessation of ("determinate thought" in) feeling and perceiving--complete spontaneity of mind--but he also taught a way of living that I believe only relied on regular experience of "the cessation of inhalation and exhalation". Part of that way of living was the experience of thought in connection with an inhalation or an exhalation: Aware of mind I shall breathe in. Aware of mind I shall breathe out. (One) makes up one’s mind: “Gladdening my mind I shall breathe in. Gladdening my mind I shall breathe out. Composing my mind I shall breathe in. Composing my mind I shall breathe out. Detaching my mind I shall breathe in. Detaching my mind I shall breathe out. (SN V 312, Pali Text Society Vol V p 275-276; tr. F. L. Woodward; masculine pronouns replaced) Much as you said, accepting the activity of the mind, with a positivity that allows for detachment.

Thought this might be of interest to other 'bums: "The contents of Topic 86 provide evidential support for an interpretation of Mencius as advocating internalist belief in the innate potential for goodness in human nature. This engages Mencius’s discussion at 3B9 in which he attacks the doctrines of Yáng Zhu¯ 楊朱 and Mò Dí 墨翟, who advocate egoism and altruism, respectively. Mencian Confucianism repudiates these act-based ethics in favor of the cultivation of character (Csikszentmihalyi 2002). This is uncontroversial, but it leads to an ongoing interpretive problem about self-cultivation. Consider Mencius’s four “sprouts” of virtues (sì dua¯n 四端) in 2A6, where he writes that “if one is without the heart (xı¯n 心) of compassion, one is not human.… The feeling of compassion is the sprout of benevolence” (Van Norden 2008, 46; see also the archer analogy at 2A7). On one interpretation of these passages, the cultivation of feelings appears to be the source of moral virtue in Mencius, making Mencius representative of what is known in philosophy as an “internalist” theory of moral motivation. This allegedly contrasts with moral motivation and cultivation as found in Analects and Xunzi. These two texts are thought to advocate a greater number of, and greater roles for, externalist sources of morality like ritual (lıˇ 禮), patterned civility (wén), and rectification of names (zhèngmíng 正名). Our evidence appears to support this interpretation of Mencius. We draw additional evidence for this interpretation from several sources in traditional scholarship. For example, Slingerland (2003) argues that Mencius is uniquely and distinctively “internalist,” and Kline (2000) that Mencius’s ethics are “inside-out,” as have others (Ihara 1991; Wong 1991). However, since Topic 86 has a high text weight in only Discourses on salt and iron, and not in our core Confucian texts, we must collect additional evidence for the internalist interpretation of Mencius before we can rest confident that it is correct." (p 20) https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56b23f391bbee0832a71e819/t/5f7904c5c8f18a2d0326c669/1601766610059/Nichols%2C+et+al.+2017+JAS+Chinese+Philosophy+Machine-Learning.pdf240311-Nichols,+et+al.+2017+JAS+Chinese+Philosophy+Machine-Learning.pdf

The Gospel of Thomas is without question the most significant book discovered in the Nag Hammadi library. Unlike the Gospel of Peter, discovered sixty years earlier, this book is completely preserved. It has no narrative at all, no stories about anything that Jesus did, no references to his death and resurrection. The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of 114 sayings of Jesus. ... The Jesus of this Gospel is not the Jewish messiah that we have seen in other Gospels, not the miracle-working Son of God, not the crucified and resurrected Lord, and not the Son of Man who will return on the clouds of heaven. He is the eternal Jesus whose words bring salvation. Many of the sayings of Jesus in this Gospel will be familiar to those who have read the Synoptic Gospels... Other sayings sound vaguely familiar, yet somewhat peculiar: “Let him who seeks not cease seeking until he finds, and when he finds, he will be troubled, and when he is troubled, he will marvel, and he will rule over the All”. (https://ehrmanblog.org/the-gospel-of-thomas-an-overview/#) In the first century of the Common Era, there appeared at the eastern end of the Mediterranean a remarkable religious leader who thaught the worship of one true God and declared that religion meant not the sacrifice of beasts but the practice of charity and piety and the shunning of hatred and enmity. He was said to have worked miracles of goodness, casting out demons, healing the sick, raising the dead. His exemplary life led some of his followers to claim he was a son of God, though he called himself the son of man. Accused of sedition against Rome, he was arrested. After his death, his disciples claimed he had risen from the dead, appeared to them alive, and then ascended to heaven. Who was this teacher and wonder-worker? His name was Apollonius of Tyana; he died about 98 A.D., and his story may be read in Flavius Philostratus's "Life of Apollonius". (Randel Helms, "Gospel Fictions", p 9) Maybe someone here will know better than me, but doesn't the practice of a practicing Christian owe more to Paul than to Jesus?

Let me confess, I've only ever read a few passages from GF. I played with hypnosis a lot as a teenager, both with hypnotizing others and with autohypnosis. I met a Zen teacher in the early '70's, listened to a few of his lectures but never tried to be a formal student. By then I was sitting half-lotus for at least short intervals daily, but the period length at the local Zen Center where I went for the lectures was 40 minutes, so I started aiming for that. In the '80's, that same Zen teacher closed a lecture at S. F. Zen Center by saying: "You know, sometimes zazen gets up and walks around." I had exactly that experience in 1975, in a room off the Golden Gate Park panhandle in San Francisco--I'm guessing it was partly from exposure to the Zen teacher, just like when I took judo and everybody in the dojo picked up the master teacher's favorite throw. Kind of an osmosis thing. The difficulty was in integrating that experience back into my daily life. Now when I sit down on the cushion, I open myself to a particular experience: The presence of mind can utilize the location of attention to maintain the balance of the body and coordinate activity in the movement of breath, without a particularly conscious effort to do so. There can also come a moment when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention at a certain location in the body, or at a series of locations, with the ability to remain awake as the location of attention shifts retained through the exercise of presence. (Common Ground) That necessity is not simply the necessity for breath: 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. (A Way of Living). I believe the location of attention that shifts and moves is what Mencius described as the "heart-mind"--I believe it was Mencius who said, "seek the release of the heart-mind". I would put that another way: When “doing something” has ceased, and there is “not one particle of the body” that cannot receive the placement of attention, then the placement of attention is free to shift as necessary in the movement of breath. When a presence of mind is retained as the placement of attention shifts, then the natural tendency toward the free placement of attention can draw out thought initial and sustained, and bring on the stages of concentration: … there is no need to depend on teaching. But the most important thing is to practice and realize our true nature… [laughs]. This is, you know, Zen. (Shunryu Suzuki, Tassajara 68-07-24 transcript from shunryusuzuki.com) (Shunryu Suzuki on Shikantaza and the Theravadin Stages) The experience of the heart-mind, of the mind that moves, is in a sense "other-worldly"--action proceeds from the location of the heart-mind, and not by will or volition. The difficulty is that most people will lose consciousness before they cede activity to the location of attention–they lose the presence of mind with the placement of attention, because they can’t believe that action in the body is possible without “doing something”... (ibid) Sounds like scopolamine.