Mark Foote

As to what it means: you could do worse, than to read my PDF A Natural Mindfulness. Not by much, but you could. I'll try for the Reader's Digest version. Gautama spoke of laying hold of “one-pointedness” in the induction of the first “trance”: 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) I have described the experience of “one-pointedness of mind” as something that can occur in the movement of breath: 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. In my experience, the “placement of attention” by the movement of breath only occurs freely in what Gautama described as “the fourth musing”: Again, a (person), putting away ease… enters and abides in the fourth musing; seated, (one) suffuses (one’s) body with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind. (AN III 25-28, Pali Text Society Vol. III p 18-19, see also MN III 92-93) The “pureness of mind” refers to the absence of any intention to act. Suffusing the body with “purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind” is widening awareness so that there is “not one particle of the body” that cannot become the location where attention is placed. Gautama's description of the feeling of the "third musing" went 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 p 18-19, see also MN III 92-93, PTS p 132-134) I wrote: In my experience, the base of consciousness (the placement of attention) 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, parenthetical added) About that "ease": Gautama spoke of suffusing the body with “zest and ease” in the first concentration: “… (a person) steeps, drenches, fills, and suffuses this body with zest and ease, born of solitude, so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded by this lone-born zest and ease.” (AN III 25-28, Pali Text Society Vol. III p 18-19, see also MN III 92-93, PTS p 132-134) Words like “steeps” and “drenches” convey a sense of gravity, while the phrase “not one particle of the body that is not pervaded” speaks to the “one-pointedness” of attention, even as the body is suffused. If I can find a way to experience gravity in the placement of attention as the source of activity in my posture, and particular ligaments as the source of the reciprocity in that activity, then I have an ease. ("To Enjoy Our Life") The striking thing to me about my experience on the cushion these days is that 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")

Sorry for the derailing: where is this from and what does it mean? As to "where it's from". You must strive with all your might to bite through here and cut off conditioned habits of mind. Be like a person who has died the great death: after your breath is cut off, then you come back to life. Only then do you realize that it is as open as empty space. Only then do you reach the point where your feet are walking on the ground of reality. ("Zen Letters: Teachings of Yuanwu", translated by J.C. and Thomas Cleary, p 84) Wikipedia: "Yuanwu Keqin (1063–1135) was a Han Chinese Chan monk who compiled the Blue Cliff Record." The "Blue Cliff Record" is a famous compendium of Zen "cases". The quote from Wu Tsu, I took from Yuanwu's commentary on a case in the "Blue Cliff Record": ‘Hsueh Feng taught the assembly saying, “On South Mountain there’s a turtle-nosed snake. All of you people must take a good look.”’ … When Hsueh Feng speaks this way, ‘On South Mountain there’s a turtle-nosed snake,’ tell me, where is it? ... My late teacher Wu Tsu said, “With this turtle-nosed snake, you must have the ability not to get your hands or legs bitten. Hold him tight by the back of the neck with one quick grab. Then you can join hands and walk along with me.” (The Blue Cliff Record, tr. Cleary Cleary, “Twenty-second Case: Hsueh Feng’s Turtle-Nosed Snake”, p 144, 151) Regarding "one quick grab", I wrote: I’m bound to be bitten by Wu Tsu, if I take his advice to mean there’s something I should do. It’s about realizing a cessation of “doing”, but I think I might run into him, in the stretch of ligaments. (Common Ground)

S:C, you had nothing to do with that site, it was simply the first thing presented in the search results. Odd that Google doesn't recognize that clicking on that link will give a Google warning, and place that site a lot further down in the search results. Can I say that I admire you responding to everybody's two cents, as you did there. Makes us all feel appreciated, whether we deserve to feel that way or not... About the cessation of "doing something". Shunryu Suzuki said: 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) Regarding the difference between "the cessation of doing" and "the cessation of breath"--keep in mind that Gautama defined "action", or "the activities", in terms of "determinate thought": …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) 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) …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) The meaning of "inbreathing and outbreathing have ceased" can therefore be read: "(determinate thoughts in) inbreathing and outbreathing have ceased". Not that the breathing has ceased, but that "doing something" with regard to the activity of the body in inhaling and exhaling has ceased. Moshe Feldenkrais spoke of upright posture in which both "doing something" through the exercise of volition and "doing something" simply by virtue of habit have ceased: …good upright posture is that from which a minimum muscular effort will move the body with equal ease in any desired direction. This means that in the upright position there must be no muscular effort deriving from voluntary control, regardless of whether this effort is known and deliberate or concealed from the consciousness by habit. (“Awareness Through Movement”, Moshe Feldenkrais, p 76, 78) What Gautama taught was a way to sit down and arrive at the cessation of "doing something" with regard to the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation. Suzuki referred to that as "just sitting", or shikantaza. Gautama further taught a way of living that involved regular experience of the cessation of "doing something" in daily life--he described that way of living as "something perfect in itself, and a pleasant way of living, besides." Gautama also taught that there are states of concentration that lead to the cessation of "doing something" with regard to actions of feeling and perceiving (that's mentioned in the quote above, about the gradual ceasing of the activities). That would be the ceasing of "determinate thought" in feeling and perceiving, the cessation of habit and volition in activity of the mind. That's the attainment associated with Gautama's enlightenment, his insight into the four truths.

Interesting, is this a scenario you have consciously created or did the scene just happen? I'm just relating the symbols in your dream to my experience in sitting. The fruit that drops on the table--a one-pointedness of mind that can shift location and a sense of gravity that pervades the body are the fruit and the table to me. There's no eating the fruit. The striking thing to me about my experience on the cushion these days is that 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). In the months since I wrote my friend, I’ve had some time to reflect. There are some things I would add, on my practice of “scales”. Gautama spoke of suffusing the body with “zest and ease” in the first concentration: “… (a person) steeps, drenches, fills, and suffuses this body with zest and ease, born of solitude, so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded by this lone-born zest and ease.” (AN III 25-28, Pali Text Society Vol. III p 18-19, see also MN III 92-93, PTS p 132-134) Words like “steeps” and “drenches” convey a sense of gravity, while the phrase “not one particle of the body that is not pervaded” speaks to the “one-pointedness” of attention, even as the body is suffused. If I can find a way to experience gravity in the placement of attention as the source of activity in my posture, and particular ligaments as the source of the reciprocity in that activity, then I have an ease. ("To Enjoy Our Life")

Puts me in mind of a song: Relax your mind, relax your mindMake you feel so fine sometimeSometime you got to relax your mindWhen the light turns greenPut your foot down on the gasolineSometime you got to relax your mindWhen the light turns redPut your foot down on the brake insteadSometime you got to relax your mindWhen the light turns blueWhat in the world are you gonna doSometime you got to GF your mind (Jim Kweskin, with slight alteration) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=963_5AiDk94

Last question first, never heard of Mrs. Byron's four questions. I googled and found them, interesting. By the way, I would not go to the website "thework.com" for the questions--within a few seconds, I got a screen saying my version of the Chrome browser needing updating, and informing me that if the update did not start directly, I should click a button prominently displayed on the page. Chrome updates automatically, so this was clearly bogus, the button an invitation to malware hell. My latest post (on my own site) is not intended to be a rejection of the examination of emotions, far from it, although it might read that way. I guess for me, the question is more how to proceed to open my experience, of emotions, of dreams, and of daily living. Here's the post: One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular. (Carl Jung: The Philosophical Tree; Collected Works 13: Alchemical Studies. Paragraph 335) Shunryu Suzuki described the true practice of seated meditation as “just sitting”, meaning that “doing something” in the act of sitting has ceased. I believe, as Gautama the Buddha said, that the cessation of “doing something” in speech, body, or mind is a contact of freedom. I don’t think the integration of childhood memories, pre-speech memories, and inured emotional responses can take place apart from that cessation of “doing something” in the body and mind and that contact of freedom. I practice more now, as I see that the cessation I experience in “just sitting” helps to provide a sense of timing in my life, a sense of timing that seems related to a whole beyond what I can know. I’m not looking to become enlightened, or to make the darkness conscious. … time, just as it is, is being, and being is all time. (Dogen: “Uji (Being-Time)”; “The Heart of Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō”, tr by Waddell, Norman; Abe, Masao. SUNY Press. 2001. p 48) (The Practice of Time)

A nice translation: “Wonder of wonders! All sentient beings inherently possess the wisdom and virtues of the tathagata. But because of delusion and attachment, they are unable to actualize these qualities.” (translation from: https://www.ctworld.org.tw/english-96/html/01_3Periods.html) The source is not cited in the above link, but I see that on another site, the source is referred to as the "Garland Sutra". I assume that's the Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra. From Wikipedia: The Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra was written in stages, beginning from at least 500 years after the death of the Buddha. One source claims that it is "a very long text composed of a number of originally independent scriptures of diverse provenance, all of which were combined, probably in Central Asia, in the late third or the fourth century CE." Japanese scholars such as Akira Hirakawa and Otake Susumu meanwhile argue that the Sanskrit original was compiled in India from sutras already in circulation which also bore the name "Buddhavatamsaka". So, no, I don't believe Gautama the Shakyan ever said that, although it's a lovely sentiment. Meanwhile, as far as being able "to actualize these qualities": When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point… Although actualized immediately, the inconceivable may not be apparent. (Dogen, "Genjo Koan", tr Tanahashi)

What a profound dream! I follow a progression like this in my sitting, for awhile now. I drive, I'm at a tree with a trunk, there's a man and woman in the active and receptive aspects of my effort, there's a taste of action by virtue of the placement of attention rather than volition, then there's no trunk but just a recognition of something that I have already partaken of. Forgive me if you've already read this, from a post of mine last fall: Although attention can be directed to the movement of breath, necessity in the movement of breath can also direct attention, as I wrote previously: There can… 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. ... Foyan (12th-century Chinese Zen teacher) spoke of “looking for a donkey riding on the donkey”. The degree of “self-surrender” required to allow necessity to place attention, and the presence of mind required to “lay hold” as the placement of attention shifts, make the conscious experience of “riding the donkey” elusive. (Shunryu) Suzuki provided an analogy: 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”, August Sesshin Lecture Wednesday, August 6, 1969, San Francisco; “fell” corrected to “fall”; transcript from shunryusuzuki.com) Suzuki offered the analogy in response to the travails of his students, who were experiencing pain in their legs sitting cross-legged on the floor. In his analogy, he suggested the possibility of an escape from pain through a presence of mind with the function of the body. 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”: ... 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)

Learned a lot today, just from a brief reading of Wikipedia entries under "Filioque" and related topics. Thanks to you, Cobie, and snowymountains. Cobie, how come you know so much about the topic? The outcomes, with regard to the world's faiths, don't speak well for mechanisms of transmission (so to speak). Science has its usefulness, in standardizing methodology and especially in predicting physical outcomes. Religion as the science of arriving at the deathless, not so much.

Photo by Bob Edwards. Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco California

For snowymountains:

Yes, I just thought that was an interesting follow-on from the article you linked. I wonder what differences there are in the practice of Christianity, between the two churches. Nothing to do with the best translation of "The Golden Flower", of course.

On July 16, 1054, Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Cerularius was excommunicated from the Christian church based in Rome, Italy. Cerularius’s excommunication was a breaking point in long-rising tensions between the Roman church based in Rome and the Byzantine church based in Constantinople (now called Istanbul). The resulting split divided the European Christian church into two major branches: the Western Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. This split is known as the Great Schism, or sometimes the “East-West Schism” or the “Schism of 1054.” The Great Schism came about due to a complex mix of religious disagreements and political conflicts. One of the many religious disagreements between the western (Roman) and eastern (Byzantine) branches of the church had to do with whether or not it was acceptable to use unleavened bread for the sacrament of communion. (The west supported the practice, while the east did not.) Other objects of religious dispute include the exact wording of the Nicene Creed and the Western belief that clerics should remain celibate. These religious disagreements were made worse by a variety of political conflicts, particularly regarding the power of Rome. Rome believed that the pope—the religious leader of the western church—should have authority over the patriarch—the religious authority of the eastern church. Constantinople disagreed. Each church recognized their own leaders, and when the western church eventually excommunicated Michael Cerularius and the entire eastern church. The eastern church retaliated by excommunicating the Roman pope Leo III and the Roman church with him. While the two churches have never reunited, over a thousand years after their split, the western and eastern branches of Christianity came to more peaceable terms. In 1965, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I lifted the longstanding mutual excommunication decrees made by their respective churches. (https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/great-schism/)

Seriously, though: ... a good [person], by passing quite beyond the plane of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, enters on and abides in the stopping of perception and feeling; and when [such a person] has seen by means of wisdom [their] cankers are caused to be destroyed. And… this [person] does not imagine [him or her self] to be aught or anywhere or in anything. (MN III 42-45, Vol III pg 92-94) I don't expect to get there (conscious experience of feeling and perceiving in the absence of volition). As I wrote in my most recent post: Shunryu Suzuki described the true practice of seated meditation as “just sitting”, meaning that “doing something” in the act of sitting has ceased. I believe, as Gautama the Buddha said, that the cessation of “doing something” in speech, body, or mind is a contact of freedom. ... I practice more now, as I see that the cessation I experience in “just sitting” helps to provide a sense of timing in my life, a sense of timing that seems related to a whole beyond what I can know. (The Practice of Time) "A whole beyond what I can know"--that's more of a "self" than Gautama acknowledged, I'll admit, but it's really not about a "thing" but about action. As Dogen put it: Although actualized immediately, the inconceivable may not be apparent. (Genjo Koan, tr Tanahashi)

old3bob and the notion of Self:

It's an interesting point. I believe that in the first four Nikayas, at least, Gautama usually stopped at "who I am not", as here: Whatever… is material shape, past, future or present, internal or external, gross or subtle, mean or excellent, or whatever is far or near, (a person), thinking of all this material shape as ‘This is not mine, this am I not, this is not my self’, sees it thus as it really is by means of perfect wisdom. Whatever is feeling… perception… the habitual tendencies… whatever is consciousness, past, future, or present (that person), thinking of all this consciousness as ‘This is not mine, this am I not, this is not my self’, sees it thus as it really is by means of perfect wisdom. (For one) knowing thus, seeing thus, there are no latent conceits that ‘I am the doer, mine is the doer’ in regard to this consciousness-informed body.” (MN III 18-19, Pali Text Society Vol. III pg 68) I see that as a major difference between the teachings of Gautama, and the teachings found in most other wisdom traditions.

maybe more later but for right now, gone splashing out in the desert

... in the end I am convinced that everything I need to know I learn by being where I am, as I am. I just have to be open to it. (yers truly, from Post: “I tried your practice last night”- humbleone, from “The Dao Bums”)

This place is goin' to the dogs...

The classic cases of Ch'an and Zen were what got my attention. Read a lot of Alan Watts, back in the high school days, but although I understood what he had to say, I was not satisfied with my mind. A friend turned me on to the zazen instructions in the back of "Three Pillars of Zen", so I began to sit--it was hard to sit even five minutes with my legs crossed, at first. In college, a friend took me down to hear Kobun Chino Otogawa speak at the Santa Cruz Zen Center, in California. I attended a number of his lectures, and found him remarkable. In about 1975, I found a copy of Henry Clarke Warren's "Buddhism in Translations". The material from Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga was clearly garbage to me, and there's a lot of it in Warren's work, but the material from the Nikayas about the concentrations fascinated me. In the early '80's, I bought the books of the first four Nikayas from the Pali Text Society, and over the course of a few years read them. They're not different from Zen, when you get right down to it (A reconciliation of Theravadin and Zen practice).

Your worship will become a deva? No indeed, brahmin. I'll not become a deva. Then your worship will become a gandarva? No indeed, brahmin, I'll not become a gandarva. A yakka, then? No indeed, brahmin. Not a yakka. Then your worship will become a human being? No indeed, brahmin. I'll not become a human being. ... Who then, pray, will your worship become? ... Just as, brahmin, a lotus, blue, red, or white, though born in the water, grown up in the water, when it reaches the surface stands there unsoiled by the water,--just so, brahmin, though born in the world, grown up in the world, having overcome the world, I abide unsoiled by the world. Take it that I am a Buddha, brahmin. (AN Book of Fours 36, Pali Text Society AN Vol 2 p 44)

As far as favorites, I think that would have to be Maha-Parinibbana Sutta, because of a few things Gautama said in that sutta: (from Part Two: The Journey to Vesali) 32. ... What more does the community of bhikkhus expect from me, Ananda? I have set forth the Dhamma without making any distinction of esoteric and exoteric doctrine; there is nothing, Ananda, with regard to the teachings that the Tathagata holds to the last with the closed fist of a teacher who keeps some things back. Now I am frail, Ananda, old, aged, far gone in years. This is my eightieth year, and my life is spent. Even as an old cart, Ananda, is held together with much difficulty, so the body of the Tathagata is kept going only with supports. It is, Ananda, only when the Tathagata, disregarding external objects, with the cessation of certain feelings, attains to and abides in the signless concentration of mind, [19] that his body is more comfortable. 33. "Therefore, Ananda, be islands unto yourselves, refuges unto yourselves, seeking no external refuge; with the Dhamma as your island, the Dhamma as your refuge, seeking no other refuge. "And how, Ananda, is a bhikkhu an island unto himself, a refuge unto himself, seeking no external refuge; with the Dhamma as his island, the Dhamma as his refuge, seeking no other refuge? 34. "When he dwells contemplating the body in the body, earnestly, clearly comprehending, and mindfully, after having overcome desire and sorrow in regard to the world; when he dwells contemplating feelings in feelings, the mind in the mind, and mental objects in mental objects, earnestly, clearly comprehending, and mindfully, after having overcome desire and sorrow in regard to the world, then, truly, he is an island unto himself, a refuge unto himself, seeking no external refuge; having the Dhamma as his island, the Dhamma as his refuge, seeking no other refuge. 35. "Those bhikkhus of mine, Ananda, who now or after I am gone, abide as an island unto themselves, as a refuge unto themselves, seeking no other refuge; having the Dhamma as their island and refuge, seeking no other refuge: it is they who will become the highest, [20] if they have the desire to learn." (from Part Six: The Passing Away) 8. ... Behold now, bhikkhus, I exhort you: All compounded things are subject to vanish. Strive with earnestness! (DN 16 PTS: D ii 72 chapters 1-6 "Maha-parinibbana Sutta: Last Days of the Buddha", tr Sister Vajira & Francis Story, © 1998) My favorite translation of that last would be: "Everything changes. Work out your own salvation!"

Deceptive relief, 'cause it's only a foot deep still, a sight to see photo by James Marvin Phelps, Lake Manly in the Mojave a few days ago