Mark Foote

I believe some of them do. The practice of prayer or meditation in different traditions is interesting. Most seem to involve bending the knees.

This thread is sapping and impurifying my precious bodily fluids!

"Watching your thoughts" is not exactly the practice that Gautama recommended and practiced as his own way of living: 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 54.1; Pali Text Society vol V p 275-276) I've already mentioned (above) that in my opinion, there is no traditional Buddhist "insight meditation", at least not as far as the early Buddhist texts. There are people who are freed from the desire for sensual pleasures, for renewing existence (becoming), and for delusion (for ignorance), who were freed by means of "intuitive wisdom", but Gautama did not teach a path to "intuitive wisdom" alone. He taught a way of living (the arising of mindfulness in the four fields) that embraced the cessation of volition in action of body, speech, and mind (in concentration). "Just sitting" is the experience of action of the body in inhalation and exhalation in the absence of volition.

For those who laughed at my comment. Please pay close attention to this: Ref: https://www.verywellhealth.com/diaphragmatic-breathing-how-to-benefits-and-exercises-5219974 Doing diaphragmatic breathing might be a good "preparatory practice for shikantaza"--I do think it's true that: 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; transcript from shunryusuzuki.com)

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; San Francisco, February 22, 1970; transcript from shunryusuzuki.com) Not to repeat myself, but: Dogen wrote: When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point… (“Genjo Koan [Actualizing the Fundamental Point]”, tr. Robert Aitken and Kazuaki Tanahashi) “When you find your way at this moment”, activity takes place solely by virtue of the free location of consciousness. A relationship between the freedom of consciousness and the automatic activity of the body comes forward, and as that relationship comes forward, practice occurs. Through such practice, the placement of consciousness is manifested as the activity of the body. ("Take the Backward Step") That's shikantaza, and the zazen that sits zazen. Zazen doesn't sit zazen when you are doing something.

An excerpt from something I'm writing for my own site. In one of the sermons of the Pali Canon, Gautama the Buddha described “seven (types of) persons existing in the world”. The first two were “the one who is freed both ways”, and “the one freed by means of intuitive wisdom”: And which, monks, is the person who is freed both ways? As to this, monks, some person is abiding, having apprehended with the person those peaceful Deliverances which are incorporeal having transcended material shapes; and having seen by means of wisdom his cankers are utterly destroyed. I, monks, do not say of this (person) that there is something to be done through diligence. What is the reason for this? It has been done by (them) through diligence, (they) could not become negligent. And which, monks, is the person who is freed by means of intuitive wisdom? As to this, monks, some person is abiding without having apprehended with the person those peaceful Deliverances which are incorporeal having transcended material shapes; yet, having seen by means of wisdom (their) cankers are utterly destroyed. This, monks, is called the person who is freed by means of intuitive wisdom. I, monks, do not say of this (person) that there is something to be done through diligence. What is the reason for this? It has been done by (them) through diligence, (they) could not become negligent… (MN 70 [Pali Text Society pp 151-154]; more on “The Deliverances”, DN 15 Mahanidanasutta, Pali Text Society DN ii section 35 pp 68-69; pronouns replaced) “Those peaceful Deliverances which are incorporeal”, Gautama taught as a set of five concentrations. They generally followed a set of four “corporeal” concentrations, four concentrations that culminate in the cessation of volition in the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation. The “incorporeal” concentrations, meanwhile, were said to culminate in the cessation of volition in the activity of the mind in feeling and perceiving. The three “cankers” are given as “sense-pleasures”, “becoming”, and “ignorance” (MN III 121, PTS Vol. III pp 151-2). As to what is “destroyed” in the two types of persons who are “freed”, the roots of the craving for sense-pleasures, the roots of the craving “to continue, to survive, to be” (Sujato Bhikkyu, “What is Bhava (becoming)”, discourse.suttacentral.net), and the roots of the craving for what is delusion are destroyed. In the sermon on the types of persons in the world, Gautama went on to list five types for whom “there is (yet) something to be done through diligence”. The five have one thing in common: they have all “seen by means of wisdom”, yet their cankers were not “utterly destroyed”. Consequently, “there is (yet) something to be done through diligence” for them. There are schools of modern Buddhism that regard concentration as an ancilliary practice in the attainment of wisdom, as a useful precursor to the attainment of insight. In the sermon above, Gautama acknowledged that there are indeed those who are “freed by means of intuitive wisdom” without experience of the five “incorporeal” Deliverances, but so far as I know he did not teach a path to such a freedom. The paths that he did teach, eight-fold for the learner and ten-fold for the adept, both included “right concentration” among the elements. I'm not saying that the practice taught as Vipassana is not useful, nor that it doesn't have roots in the accepted practice of some modern schools of Theravadin Buddhism (principally in Myanmar). I'm only saying that persons who have "seen by means of wisdom" may still have "something to be done by diligence". Myself, my study has been solely for the reconciliation of activity of the body by virtue of the location of consciousness with my everyday life, and I believe in his description of his way of living--which Gautama described as "… something peaceful and choice, something perfect in itself, and a pleasant way of living too" (SN 54.9, Pali Text Society SN vol. V p 285)--I have that reconciliation. “Don’t ever think that you can sit zazen! That’s a big mistake! Zazen sits zazen!” (Shunryu Suzuki to Blanche Hartman, here)

myriad choices ceasing the action of choice peace in the valley

Vipassana?

A different skill involving the wall: Sitting shikantaza is the place itself, and things. …When you sit, the cushion sits with you. If you wear glasses, the glasses sit with you. Clothing sits with you. House sits with you. People who are moving around outside all sit with you. They don’t take the sitting posture! (“Aspects of Sitting Meditation”, “Shikantaza”; Kobun Chino Otogawa; http://www.jikoji.org/intro-aspects/) My explanation: 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. When the free location of consciousness is accompanied by an extension of the mind of compassion, there can be a feeling that the necessity of breath is connected to things that lie outside the boundaries of the senses. "People who are moving around outside", on the other side of the wall, can affect the placement of awareness in the body, even if their presence doesn't register in the senses directly. The location of awareness can become the sole source of the activity of the body--habit and volition in inhalation and exhalation can cease, yet the people moving around outside are a part of the activity of the body.

This, 'cause attending the free location of consciousness makes me happy--from my own site: On a forum site I frequent (Dao Bums, in fact!), someone wrote: Even if you have no identity, you still exist. As what? The spirituality that I follow would say “as existence”, or “as pure consciousness”. I was reminded of Nisargadatta, a famous teacher who lived in India in the last century: You are not your body, but you are the consciousness in the body, because of which you have the awareness of “I am”. It is without words, just pure beingness. Meditation means you have to hold consciousness by itself. The consciousness should give attention to itself. (1) “The consciousness should give attention to itself”—in thirteenth-century Japan, Eihei Dogen wrote: Therefore, …take the backward step of turning the light and shining it back. (2) That’s a poetic way to say “the consciousness should give attention to itself”. I used to talk about the location of consciousness, but a friend of mine would always respond that for him, consciousness has no specific location. As a result, I switched to writing about the placement of attention: 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. (3) In his “Genjo Koan”, Dogen wrote: When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. (4) Given a presence of mind that can “hold consciousness by itself”, activity in the body begins to coordinate by virtue of the sense of place associated with consciousness. A relationship between the free location of consciousness and activity in the body comes forward, and as that relationship comes forward, “practice occurs”. Through such practice, the placement of consciousness is manifested in the activity of the body. Dogen continued: When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point… (4) “When you find your way at this moment”, activity takes place solely by virtue of the free location of consciousness. A relationship between the freedom of consciousness and the automatic activity of the body comes forward, and as that relationship comes forward, practice occurs. Through such practice, the placement of consciousness is manifested as the activity of the body. I sit down first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and I look to experience the activity of the body solely by virtue of the free location of consciousness. As a matter of daily life, just to touch on such experience as occasion demands—for me, that’s enough. 1 Gaitonde, Mohan [2017]. Self – Love: The Original Dream [Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj’s Direct Pointers to Reality]. Mumbai: Zen Publications. ISBN 978-9385902833 2 “Fukan zazengi” Tenpuku version; tr. Carl Bielefeldt, “Dogen’s Manuals of Zen Meditation”, p 176; © 1988 The Regents of the University of California 3) see “Appendix–A Way of Living” 4) “Genjo Koan [Actualizing the Fundamental Point]”, tr. Robert Aitken and Kazuaki Tanahashi, from “Moon in a Dewdrop: Writings of Zen Master Dogen”, p 69, © San Francisco Zen Center ("Take the Backward Step") What's missing for a lot of people, and for me when I started out, is the experience of the relationship between the free location of consciousness and the cessation of habit/volition in the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation. I think it helps, to know what I'm looking for when I sit down (or stand up and dance!).

Sometimes the extension on the images is something other than jpg. I think Dao Bums only uploads jpg, probably only links to jpg too.

I did not realize at first that there is actually a down-vote option in the emoji responses now. wow. Don't think I'm going to use that, except in jest. I have to wonder whose idea it was, and who had to agree to it to make it happen. I wonder who they are The folks who really run this site And I wonder why they run it With such emoji slights What are their names and on what streets do they live? I'd like to ride right over this afternoon and give Them a piece of my mind about peace for Dao kind Peace is not an awful lot to ask (apologies to David Crosby)

most rice-flies, ever a week later, mostly gone deafening silence

There's another aspect to having a teacher. I took judo in high school from Moon Watanabe, who taught at the Menlo Park Recreation Center (in Menlo Park, California). There was a fee to cover the cost of the dojo upkeep or maybe the Park and Recs rental, I'm not sure which--it was very nominal. The dojo was in an upstairs loft at one end of the gym, had tatami mats and canvas stretched over the top, the way a judo dojo should have. Moon worked as a janitor at Lenkurt Electric, and his first three students came from there. There's an example of a teacher having a day job, and offering out of the goodness of his heart and his love of the art. Not that I think there's anything wrong with a teacher accepting donations. Moon's throw was the foot sweep. Every judo teacher has one throw that is their signature, two at most, even though they teach all the others. Everyone in the dojo learned the sweep as though by osmosis, and it's not really an easy throw. I scored a half-point with it once at a tournament, I was no exception. I watched his most senior student earn his black belt with it, a great day at the dojo. Point of the story is, there's something physical in these arts. That aspect is mostly learned by being in proximity with someone who practices the art. I went to a lot of Kobun Chino Otogawa's lectures in the early seventies. I didn't do any sesshins at that time, and I never became his student. In 1975, I took a day and said "I'm going to stay aware of each breath in and each breath out all day". Of course, it didn't quite work like that, but that was my effort. In the afternoon, I was sitting in a chair behind a desk when suddenly my breath got up and walked across the room, or at least that's what it felt like. In the 1980's, I attended a lecture Kobun gave at the S. F. Zen Center. At the close of the lecture, he said: "You know, sometimes zazen gets up and walks around." I think he was admonishing the hot shots at the Zen Center, but I sure knew what he was talking about. By that time, I had spent years trying to get zazen to do everything in my life. That didn't happen, of course, but my life became about trying to figure out where that piece fit in the bigger picture (whilst holding that day job). Fifty years on, and it turns out that Gautama's way of living was the four-fold mindfulness I quoted, but the particulars of the four-fold mindfulness included the experience of "zazen sitting zazen". Helps me to know that. “Don’t ever think that you can sit zazen! That’s a big mistake! Zazen sits zazen!” (Shunryu Suzuki to Blanche Hartman, here) If you're interested, you can read the gist, here. Did I pick it up from Kobun, like I picked up the sweep from Moon? I'll never know, but I wouldn't be surprised.

A good teacher is a great thing. Nevertheless: Therefore… be ye lamps unto yourselves. Be ye a refuge unto yourselves. Betake yourselves to no external refuge. Hold fast to the Truth as a lamp. Hold fast as a refuge to the Truth. Look not for refuge to any one besides yourselves. And how… is (one) to be a lamp unto (oneself), a refuge unto (oneself), betaking (oneself) to no external refuge, holding fast to the Truth as a lamp, holding fast as a refuge to the Truth, looking not for refuge to any one besides (oneself)? Herein, … (one) continues, as to the body, so to look upon the body that (one) remains strenuous, self-possessed, and mindful, having overcome both the hankering and the dejection common in the world. [And in the same way] as to feelings… moods… ideas, (one) continues so to look upon each that (one) remains strenuous, self-possessed, and mindful, having overcome both the hankering and the dejection common in the world. (Digha Nikaya Maha-parinibbana Sutta, Pali Text Society DN Vol. II p 108; Rhys Davids’ “body, feelings, moods, and ideas”, above, rendered by Horner as “body, feelings, mind, and mental states”) The way I practice the four: 1) Relax the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation; 2) Find a feeling of ease and calm the senses connected with balance, in inhalation and exhalation; 3) Appreciate and detach from thought, in inhalation and exhalation; 4) Look to the free location of consciousness for the automatic activity of inhalation and exhalation.

productivity award to Clear Lake, CA most rice-flies, ever!

I had to add a plugin called IP2Location County Blocker to my WordPress site, to block IP addresses from China (the plugin allows blocking by country). I'm not sure how long it was going on, not more than a few months I'm guessing, but I was getting hundreds of hits from China a day (suddenly). Bot-city. Not sure how many of the hits to my site are bots operating from other countries, but I'm guessing a significant number. On the fising--whatever floats yer bucket, Nungali!

I'm interested in the distinction you see between focusing on the breath in the nose, and zazen. Something I wrote in response to one of the koans in "The Blue Cliff Record" (case 22): I find the “turtle-nose snake” case in the “Blue Cliff Record” helpful in feeling my jaw and skull in the balance of the body. Ch’an teacher Yuanwu offered the case (I’ll include only the first line): ‘Hsueh Feng taught the assembly saying, “On South Mountain there’s a turtle-nosed snake. All of you people must take a good look.”’ (Yuanwu’s commentary): … 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 nose that came to mind when I read the case was a sea turtle’s nose—basically a pair of holes in a skull. I find that awareness of the air moving through the holes in the skull behind the nose contributes both the dynamic of inhalation or exhalation and the balance of the head to the location of the center of balance. Wu Tsu’s “join hands and walk with me”, I take to be a reference to an interaction between the placement of the arms and legs and the center of balance. Regarding “one quick grab”, I can only say that 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. (Post: Common Ground)

Dao Bums at work:

The mortar the merrier!

Well, thanks for thinking to reply, anyway!

I find the “turtle-nose snake” case in the “Blue Cliff Record” helpful in feeling my jaw and skull in the balance of the body. Ch’an teacher Yuanwu offered the case (I’ll include only the first line): ‘Hsueh Feng taught the assembly saying, “On South Mountain there’s a turtle-nosed snake. All of you people must take a good look.”’ (Yuanwu’s commentary) … 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”, translated by and © 1977 Thomas Cleary and J. C. Cleary; “Twenty-second Case: Hsueh Feng’s Turtle-Nosed Snake”, Shambala p 144.) The nose that came to mind when I read the case was a sea turtle’s nose—basically a pair of holes in a skull. I find that awareness of the air moving through the holes in the skull behind the nose contributes both the dynamic of inhalation or exhalation and the balance of the head to the location of the center of balance. Wu Tsu’s “join hands and walk with me”, I take to be a reference to an interaction between the placement of the arms and legs and the center of balance. Regarding “one quick grab”, I can only say 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. (Post: Common Ground)

https://happiness-beyond-thought.com/legacy/theauthor.html Nisargadatta, a famous teacher who lived in India in the last century (said): You are not your body, but you are the consciousness in the body, because of which you have the awareness of “I am”. It is without words, just pure beingness. Meditation means you have to hold consciousness by itself. The consciousness should give attention to itself. (Gaitonde, Mohan [2017]. Self – Love: The Original Dream [Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj’s Direct Pointers to Reality]. Mumbai: Zen Publications. ISBN 978-9385902833) “The consciousness should give attention to itself”—in thirteenth-century Japan, Eihei Dogen wrote: Therefore, …take the backward step of turning the light and shining it back. (“Fukan zazengi” Tenpuku version; tr. Carl Bielefeldt, “Dogen’s Manuals of Zen Meditation”, p 176; © 1988 The Regents of the University of California) That’s a poetic way to say “the consciousness should give attention to itself”. I used to talk about the location of consciousness, but a friend of mine would always respond that for him, consciousness has no specific location. As a result, I switched to writing about the placement of attention: 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. (A Way of Living) ("Take the Backward Step"') I find that a presence of mind from one breath to the next can precipitate “one-pointedness of mind”, but laying hold of “one-pointedness of mind” requires a surrender of willful activity in the body much like falling asleep. (A Way of Living)

"Bring it into your personal experience, train in that and realize it..."--how to "train in that" and "actualize" it: In his “Genjo Koan”, Dogen wrote: When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. ("Genjo Koan [Actualizing the Fundamental Point]”, tr. Robert Aitken and Kazuaki Tanahashi) Given a presence of mind that can “hold consciousness by itself”, activity in the body begins to coordinate by virtue of the sense of place associated with consciousness. A relationship between the free location of consciousness and activity in the body comes forward, and as that relationship comes forward, “practice occurs”. Through such practice, the placement of consciousness is manifested in the activity of the body. Dogen continued: When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point… (ibid) “When you find your way at this moment”, activity takes place solely by virtue of the free location of consciousness. A relationship between the freedom of consciousness and the automatic activity of the body comes forward, and as that relationship comes forward, practice occurs. Through such practice, the placement of consciousness is manifested as the activity of the body. ("Take the Backward Step") My approach: I sit down first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and I look to experience the activity of the body solely by virtue of the free location of consciousness. As a matter of daily life, just to touch on such experience as occasion demands—for me, that’s enough. (ibid) "The method to transform this human body into rainbow light at the moment of death"--wonder on what experience the Rinpoche bases his claim that such a thing occurs?