Mark Foote

Stirling messaged me the above, and I'm grateful to him for thinking of me and for suggesting the article. We thought maybe others might be interested in the comparison between the concentrations Gautama outlined and Soto Zen's shikantaza (although I know that Dao Bums is more about the writing for most of us and less about following links to some reading, oh well!). I'll start... Daishin McCabe, the author of the article, has a thorough grounding in the Soto Zen teachings and, no doubt, the practice of the school. His Zen biography is included under the "About" tab. In the article, he is clearly hoping to establish a difference between the teachings on concentration in the Pali Canon and the teachings of the Mahayana/Soto school of Zen on shikantaza. It's a complicated issue, not least because McCabe is also concerned with enlightenment, and he frames the discussion in terms of a difference he perceives between enlightenment in the Pali sermons and enlightenment through the Mahayana/Soto Zen lens. In the last year, my eyes have been opened to the fact that Gautama did not equate the attainment of any of the concentrations with enlightenment. As it turns out, even the attainment of the final concentration doesn't necessarily result in the "intuitive wisdom" that guarantees the total destruction of the three cankers (the three “cankers” were said to be three cravings: “craving for the life of sense”, “craving for becoming”, and “craving for not-becoming” [DN 22; Pali Text Society vol. ii p 340]). According to Gautama, only the total destruction of the three cankers amounted to enlightenment (MN 70). Gautama stated that he himself acquired gnosis, "profound knowledge", or "intuitive wisdom" while abiding in the fourth of the initial concentrations, when he turned his mind to various psychic phenomena, including his own "past abidings and future habitations" (past and future lives). His cankers were completely destroyed, like palm trees cut down at the root never to grow again. At the same time, Gautama recommended a particular was of living as "a thing perfect in itself, and a pleasant way of living besides". He declared that way of living to have been his own, both before and after enlightenment (SN 54.8 & 54.11). It's the mindfulness of Anapanasati sermon (MN 118), for anyone who is interested. My understanding is that Gautama's way of living required the attainment of the concentration that he characterized as "the cessation of inbreathing and outbreathing", meaning the cessation of willful or intentional activity in the body in the activity of inhalation and exhalation. Here's where it gets interesting. From a post I'm writing now: Shunryu Suzuki described shikantaza, or “just sitting”, as “not so easy”: So most teacher may say shikantaza is not so easy, you know. It is not possible to continue more than one hour, because it is intense practice to take hold of all our mind and body by the practice which include everything. So in shikantaza, our mind should pervade every parts of our physical being. That is not so easy. (I have nothing in my mind, Shunryu Suzuki, July 15, 1969) Gautama spoke similarly about the mind pervading the body: … 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 5.28, tr. PTS vol. III pp 18-19, see also MN 119 PTS vol. III pp 132-134) “The pureness of mind” Gautama referred to is the pureness of the mind without any will or intent with regard to the activity of the body. In Gautama’s teaching, the extension of “purity by the pureness of mind” belonged to the last of four concentrations. The initial concentration is induced, said Gautama, by “making self-surrender the object of thought”: … 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 initial and sustained, which is born of solitude, easeful and zestful, and abides therein. (SN 48.10, tr. PTS vol V p 174; parentheticals paraphrase original; “initial” for “directed”, as at SN 36.11, tr. PTS vol IV p 146) In my experience, “one-pointedness” occurs when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention at a singular location in the body, and a person “lays hold of one-pointedness” when they remain awake as the singular location shifts. ... I would say the activity of the body in the fourth concentration is entirely “reflex movement” occasioned by the placement of attention. To remain awake as the placement of attention that occasions activity shifts is “just to sit”. When a presence of mind is retained as the placement of attention shifts, then the natural tendency toward the free placement of attention draws out thoughts initial and sustained, and brings on the stages of concentration. (Shunryu Suzuki on Shikantaza and the Theravadin Stages) A long post to say, shikantaza is the practice necessary to the "thing perfect in itself" that was Gautama's way of living. As to why Zen schools regard the ability to practice shikantaza as certifiable evidence of enlightenment, rather than the complete destruction of the cankers, well--at least it's kept the practice of the essential element of Gautama's way of living alive all these centuries, even if certified Zen teachers haven't always demonstrated the most moral behavior by Western standards.

Instant karma!

zerostao, that was quite a list! I did like the classics, prior the modern era. Back at ya, some:

I would recommend the Pali Text Society translations of the Nikayas (the sermons). They can be found online, though not by the Pali Text Society. Folks can PM me if they can't find the link. There are also translations by modern, Western Theravadin monks, for example on the suttacentral.org site: https://suttacentral.net/pitaka/sutta?lang=en The suttacentral texts allow for side-by-side Pali and English, if that's of interest. I notice that on their home page, the suttacentral folks speak of the four principal nikayas, and I would stick to those. According to A. K. Warder in his "Indian Buddhism", the fifth Nikaya, the Khuddaka Nikaya, was a work of later composition that was not included in the sermon collections of many of the early schools. I would also observe caution with regard to sermons attributed to Gautama's disciples, rather than Gautama. Gautama was careful to limit what he had to say, I believe to avoid contradictions, but his disciples in many cases stepped right in it (so to speak). Some favorites for me: MN 118 and MN 119. The whole SN 54.1 chapter (SN 54.1 - SN 54.11, at least). MN 70, for stating what is and is not enlightenment. DN 16 the story of Gautama's death, and DN 22, the long version of mindfulness. Googling the abbreviations here will likely return links to the sermon, for example "MN 118" (though generally not the Pali Text Society versions). I see that forestofclarity encourages recommending "your own resources". The above are my resources, maybe that's not exactly what he was encouraging? I do write, drawing from the first four Nikayas and from resources in the Ch'an and Zen traditions. I have collected the best of my writing, here: A Natural Mindfulness That's also the first eighteen pages of my website, here: The Mudra of Zen MIschief managed?

Thoughts on giving advice to a first-time sitter. https://zenmudra.com/zazen-notes/?p=2474

LIked the acoustic introduction!

I think the implication here is that Suzuki disagrees, and rightfully, I would say, with what most teachers say. Most meditators with even a few months of experience sitting at least 30 or so minutes at a time will have been through and past most of the jhanas and my have even experience cessation without realizing what they were looking at. Cessation is what you rest in, and continually reestablish in shikantaza. Reads to me like Suzuki is agreeing with most teachers, that "just sitting" is difficult. Certainly in the paragraph from another lecture about "following or counting breathing", he described shikantaza or "just to sit" as difficult: … 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; San Francisco, February 22, 1970) Actually, the space of the body is present, as "purity by the pureness of one's mind" is extended throughout the body: … 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 5.28, tr. PTS vol. III pp 18-19, see also MN 119 PTS vol. III pp 132-134) The cessation of the fourth concentration, the concentration Gautama was describing above, is the cessation of inhalation and exhalation. I agree with you, that he's referring to the cessation of will or intent in the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation. You might like this, from the piece I'm writing now: Gautama described the “first trance” as having feelings of zest and ease, and he prescribed the extension of those feelings: … (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 5.28, tr. Pali Text Society vol. III pp 18-19) Words like “steeps” and “drenches” convey that the weight of the body accompanies the feelings of zest and ease. The weight of the body sensed at a particular point in the body can shift the body’s center of gravity, and a shift in the body’s center of gravity can result in what Moshe Feldenkrais termed “reflex movement”. Feldenkrais described how “reflex movement” can be engaged in standing up from a chair: …When the center of gravity has really moved forward over the feet a reflex movement will originate in the old nervous system and straighten the legs; this automatic movement will not be felt as an effort at all. (“Awareness Through Movement”, Moshe Feldenkrais, p 78) “Drenching” the body “so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded” with zest and ease allows the weight of the body and “one-pointedness” to effect “reflex movement” in the activity of the body. In falling asleep, the mind can sometimes react to hypnagogic sleep paralysis with an attempt to reassert control over the muscles of the body, causing a “hypnic jerk”. The extension of a weighted zest and ease can pre-empt the tendency to reassert voluntary control in the induction of concentration, and make possible a conscious experience of “reflex movement” in inhalation and exhalation. ... I would say the activity of the body in the fourth concentration is entirely “reflex movement” occasioned by the ("one-pointed") placement of attention. To remain awake as the location of attention shifts and activity of the body takes place is “just to sit”. That's also "the cessation of inhalation and exhalation". The answer is that shikantaza is enlightenment in this moment. Where there is perfect being-ness shikantaza there are temporarily no cankers. This can be seen in your own practice. Ask yourself, when the mind is clear and still are there “craving for the life of sense”, “craving for becoming”, and “craving for not-becoming"? Cessation is possible in this moment, and so is insight into it. Sure, except... most folks think that once enlightenment is attained, the cankers are cut off at the root, there is no return of the cankers. And that's how Gautama saw it, to the best of my knowledge. Temporary enlightenment as the basis for inka? Ok... I am not saying that shikantaza is not a basis for transmission in the Soto Zen lineage (and one I'm grateful for), just that Gautama's enlightenment was not his regular attainment of the fourth concentration, but the gnosis he realized through psychic powers in the fourth concentration. I do believe that shikantaza is vital to the mindfulness that was Gautama's way of living, and Gautama strongly recommended that way of living, saying everything else in his teaching could follow.

I think there are versions of the illustrations where no flute is present in that stage. The necessity of the particular movement of breath is actually calling the tune, in my estimation, so as Rumi said we're being played... ha ha. From "hornwalker" on Reddit: “Good artists borrow, great artists steal.” The quote was a favorite of Steve Jobs but he was probably (mis)quoting Pablo Picasso who said “Lesser artists borrow; great artists steal” — who in turn might be rephrasing Igor Stravinsky, but both sayings may well originate in T. S. Eliot’s dictum: “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different than that from which it is torn.”

... An ancient worthy said, ‘Find the seat and put on the robe, and afterward see for yourself.’ (“Zen Letters”, tr. Cleary and Cleary, p 65)

Wishing you a fine fall, old3bob! Where do I find details of "The Not-so-Old Man and the Sea"?

Post from my blog, about the "original sin": The Tree of Knowledge In the Old Testament, God instructs Adam: Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. (NKJV Genesis 2:16-7) Adam did eat, and he didn’t die, but he did find himself cast out of the garden. In the Gospel of John, Jesus says: Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death. (NKJV John 8:51) The Gospel of Thomas (a gnostic text uncovered at Nag Hammadi in 1945) opens as follows: These are the secret words which the Living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas Thomas wrote. And He said: Whoever finds the explanation of these words will not taste death. (The Gospel According to Thomas, coptic text established and translated by A. Guillaumont, H.-CH. Puech, G. Quispel, W. Till and Yassah ‘Abd Al Masih, p. 3 log. 1, ©1959 E. J. Brill) Gautama the Buddha spoke of “the Deathless”: 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) And again: (One) cultivates right concentration, which is based on detachment, on dispassion, on cessation, which ends in self-surrender, which plunges into the deathless, which has the deathless for its aim, which has the deathless for its end. (SN V 54, Pali Text Society V p 44) Gautama taught the cessation of action born of determinate thought. He taught that such action ceases gradually, first in speech, then in body, and finally in “perceiving and feeling” (action of the mind). The cessation of action born of determinate thought must needs include the cessation of action on the basis of the knowledge of good and evil. We are stardust, we are golden And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden (Joni Mitchell, “Woodstock”; “Ladies of the Canyon”, April 1970)

move to California...

Sufism, all about praising the one--at least, as far as I could figure from the events I attended with a Sufi friend. She was a California Sufi, part of the heritage of Sufi Sam, who was all about music as a way to spread the light. The Sufis have interesting practices, and not just the whirling of the dervishes. For example, they do something called the zikir, where they bow with straight legs to the left, bend their legs when they return to upright, bow with straight legs to the right, bend their legs when they return to upright. Hard to find a good video. These folks are doing it really fast, the group I was in was slower (maybe because of the beginners who were there). The chant I believe is praise of Allah: The "Dances of Peace" were held every Sunday by the Sufi community my friend was associated with. Instructions were given before every dance, and people were very friendly. Video example:

I'll listen, at least long enough to see if I'm interested. I'm always open to something new, but mostly things here are over-produced, lacking in originality, or not exactly beautiful musically, at least not to my ear. And I like classical music, some modern music, folk music, tap guitar, and rock 'n roll--so oh well!

I'm still a fan of Crumb. The remarks I read in the article predate Trump's civil conviction for defaming E.Jean Carroll, and Trump's truly absurd re-election in spite of what he did to Carroll and god knows who else--Crumb thought it was all talk, in that interview. As to his own behavior, I suspect he has learned that jumping on women is unacceptable since those interviews. Likely to cost him dearly at some point, if he hasn't. Crumb makes fun of American sexuality, of American prejudice, bigotry, and hypocrisy, in a wicked way. He gets into dark places--as far as I'm concerned, he goes there alone, but when he's on, I do think he's brilliant. Crumb did a great set of cartoons on Trump, I thought, guess he wised up a bit about that.

Here we are, without a controversy in the world, and yet in our concern for Annnon... Are Trix for kids? I say no, Trix ain't walkin', Trix ain't walkin' no more!

"The purpose of my life is to stay connected to this presence"--I like that, and Forest of Clarity's "Surrender seems to be a large part of it. It is not always clear what is being surrendered." "Making self-surrender the object of thought, one lays hold of one-pointedness, one lays hold of concentration"--from Gautama's description of the first concentraiton. Self-surrender I would say is the surrender of will or intent, initially with regard to the activity of the body, and finally with regard to the mind. I would say that the surrender of will or intent with regard to the activity of the body in the movement of breath is the purpose of seated meditation. The sacred texts I find useful have something to say about that surrender, as does the kinesiology of the last century. A good description but without instruction, from Forest of Clarity's post: Loss and more loss Until one reaches non-action With non-action, there is nothing one cannot do Many are just gifted at according with their own nature in the relinquishment of will, healers and shamans among the indigenous cultures around the world. Not me. l I was in my thirties when I threw in the towel and went to UCSF's library (that's a medical campus). Forest of Clarity's quote disparages knowledge, but I believe knowledge that can serve in the surrender of willful activity is a good thing. Here's yet another great description IMHO: They said to Him: Shall we then, being children, enter the Kingdom? Jesus said to them: When you make the two one, and when you make the inner as the outer and the outer as the inner and the above as the below, and when you make the male and the female into a single one, so that the male will not be male and the female (not) be female, when you make eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in the place of a hand, and a foot in the place of a foot, (and) an image in the place of an image, then shall you enter [the Kingdom]. (The Gospel According to Thomas, coptic text established and translated by A. Guillaumont, H.-CH. Puech, G. Quispel, W. Till and Yassah ‘Abd Al Masih, pg 18-19 log. 22, ©1959 E. J. Brill) One more? So he abides fully conscious of what is behind and what is in front. As (he is conscious of what is) in front, so behind: as behind, so in front; as below, so above: as above, so below: as by day, so by night: as by night, so by day. Thus with wits alert, with wits unhampered, he cultivates his mind to brilliancy. (SN 51.14; tr. Pali Text Society vol V p 235)

Robert Crumb sez:

I've always been a Doubting Thomas, looking to stick my fingers in the spear holes to confirm the special guru status, you know. I have met Zen teachers who did impress me mightily. Of course, in the Soto Zen tradition that came to Northern California in the form of Shunryu Suzuki, Kobun Chino Otogawa, and others, chants listing the names in the lineage are recited daily, and praise for Buddha, dharma, and sangha as well, but guru yoga I think not so much. Gautama didn't become an other-worldly figure until a long time after his death, probably about the time they started making statues of him instead of just footprints. I heard Kobun speak on a number of occasions, and sat with him through a part of a sesshin. As with most of the teachers who trained in Japan, I was genuinely impressed. American teachers, not so much. It's apparently my curse and my blessing to have to figure things out from books a lot. I'm ok with that. It's possible I picked up one thing from Kobun, but I'll never know. One day I decided I was going to try to be aware of every breath I took, all day long. Sometime in the early afternoon, I was sitting at a desk, and my awareness of my breathing got me up and walked me to the door of my room. Maybe ten years later, I heard Kobun close a lecture at S. F. Zen Center with "you know, sometimes zazen gets up and walks around." Took me a long time to integrate that experience into my life. What impressed me about the Japanese Zen teachers was that they seemed to have had a similar experience--again, not so much the American teachers. Didn't help me sit the lotus, though. Now I find Gautama's teachings in the Pali sermons and modern kinesiology to be my teachers, and I'm back to sitting 40's in my sloppy half-lotus. I've been trying to figure out what to say to a neighbor who wants to sit with me. Maybe I will tell him to observe where his mind goes, as he breathes in and as he breathes out. I’ll probably tell him that the longer he sits, the more interesting that gets, within limits.

A key aspect of the bodily self is self-location, the experience that the self is localized at a specific position in space within one’s bodily borders (embodied self-location). (Journal of Neuroscience 26 May 2010, 30 (21) 7202-7214) I find that there is no pause between the movements of breath, provided I allow action born out of "embodied self-location. The key for me is to be present with the "specific position in space within one’s bodily borders" of self-location from one moment to the next, and to "drench" the body with the ease associated with autonomic activity such that "there is no point (in the body) that is not pervaded" with that weighted ease. At some point, consciousness retained with the embodied self-location becomes embodied self-location retained with consciousness, and the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation is solely by virtue of the location of consciousness. That last is Gautama's fourth concentration. He provided a metaphor for the feeling of the fourth concentration: … it is as if (a person) might be sitting down who had clothed (themselves) including (their) head with a white cloth; there would be no part of (their) whole body that was not covered by the white cloth. (MN 119, tr. Pali Text Society vol. III p 134) If you prefer Daoism, that would be "manifests in the skin and hair" as described in the Tai Chi classics: With this method of circulating the ch'i (Tai Chi), it overflows into the sinews, reaches the bone marrow, fills the diaphragm, and manifests in the skin and hair. ("Master Cheng's Thirteen Chapters on T'ai-Chi Ch'uan", Cheng Man-Ching trans. Douglas Wile, pg. 17)

Dumb got nothin' to do with it! How's this, something I wrote previously but my words, explaining the meaning of Gautama's "one-pointedness" and "lays hold of one-pointedness": In my experience, “one-pointedness” occurs when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention at a singular location in the body, and a person “lays hold of one-pointedness” when they remain awake as the singular location shifts. The self-surrender required to "stay connected to this presence" can be a surrender of activity in the body, and if you remain present with consciousness in that surrender, you will find that the activity of the body becomes purely a function of the location of consciousness in the body. And that location shifts and moves, naturally. The extension of ease is helpful to me in allowing activity of the body to become purely a function of the location of consciousness. I wake up to the location shifting and moving in the surrender of activity as I sit, or as I walk or dance.