Mark Foote

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. 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 ii 100, Pali Text Society DN Vol. II pg 108; Rhys Davids’ “body, feelings, moods, and ideas”, above, rendered by Horner as “body, feelings, mind, and mental states”) Might be a parallel there, although whether emotions would correspond with feelings and the subtle body with some aspect of mental states, not clear to me. Nevertheless, a similar attitude to yours, holding fast as a refuge to the truth, and not looking to anyone else.

destroy assumptions resume eating bananas very real, hungry

From the same "Parable of the Water Snake" sermon: Although I... am one who speaks thus, who points out thus, there are some recluses and brahmins who misrepresent me untruly, vainly, falsely, not in accordance with fact, saying: 'The recluse Gotama is a nihilist, he lays down the cutting off, the destruction, the disappearance of the existent entity'. But as this... is just what I am not, as this is just what I do not say, therefore these worthy recluses and brahmins misrepresent me untruly, vainly, falsely, not in accordance with fact, saying: 'The recluse Gotama is a nihilist, he lays down the cutting off, the destruction, the disappearance of the existent entity'. Formerly I... as well as now, lay down simply anguish and the stopping of anguish. If, in regard to this, ... others revile, abuse, annoy the Tathagata, there is in the Tathagatha no resentment, no distress, no dissatisfaction of mind concerning them. If, in regard to this,... others revere, esteem, respect and honour the Tathagata, there is in the Tathagatha no joy, no gladness, no elation of mind concerning them. If, in regard to this,... others revere, esteem, respect and honour the Tathagata, it occurs to the Tathagatha... concerning them: This that was formerly thoroughly known, such kind of duties are to be done by me to it. (... he advises his followers to feel the same) Wherefore... what is not yours, put it away. Putting it away will be for a long time for your welfare and happiness. And what... is not yours? Material shape... is not yours; put it away, putting it away will be for a long time for your welfare and happiness. (repeated for feeling, perception, habitual tendencies, and consciousness) (MN I 140, Pali Text Society MN V I p 180-1) I still say, there's no voice like that anywhere else in the literature of the world.

Here's a wonderful thing, the Pali Text Society translations of the Pali sermons are all available online at Internet Archive, to read or download for free. They're offered under a creative commons license by the Pali Text Society. Here's the link for Majjhima Nikaya Vol. 1, for example. The "Discourse on the Parable of the Water Snake", 22, contains "The Parable of the Raft" (p 173 but PDF index 200/443): https://ia601600.us.archive.org/22/items/I.B.Horner-Majjhima-Nikaya/I.B. Horner - Majjhima Nikaya vol 1_text.pdf He closes the parable by saying: Even so... is the Parable of the Raft dhamma taught by me for crossing over, not for retaining. You, ... by understanding the Parable of the Raft, should get rid even of (right) mental objects, all the more of wrong ones.

old3bob, not sure what exactly you're referring to, as an irreconcilable difference between Hinduism and Buddhism. I'm pretty sure that Gautama did not feel that offerings to the gods were of any benefit. I'm certain that he admitted members of all castes to his order of monks (and later, nuns). I think the democracy of the early sangha may have flown in the face of the autocratic rule of the Brahmin class, in the India of his day. Beyond that, well--maybe my memory is just selective, preferring the positive for long-term retention, but I'm not sure where the elephant you refer to is to be found, in the Pali sermons or rules of the order.

But I don't think it's liable to happenLike the sound of one hand clappin'.

Thanks, Bindi, for your even-tempered response to all the contributors, even the ones (especially the ones) who put spin on the ball in their return.

I think the Chinese talk about the "heart-mind", so that many of the references in the translations of Chinese texts that refer to "mind" might better refer to "heart-mind". Seems like that's to distinguish "heart-mind" from "thought-mind", as it were. Certainly Gautama referred to the mind as one of the six senses, and the "disturbance" of the six senses continued in the final concentration (associated with his enlightenment). Volition in "perceiving and sensing", in the actions of the mind, ceased, but not the contact of sense that was thought, apparently. I'm not really qualified to speak about ji, chi, and shen. I do experience a circulation of stretch associated with the experience of heart-mind, of the mind whose nature is nondual. "Provided it is clear that by mind I don't mean just the thinking head but rather the field of awareness in which we live and have our being. ... the 'empty' = shunyata is actually the quality of the spirit/mind itself. Being empty in this sense means being free of conditioning ... so to say spirit is empty means spirit is free and unbound essentially and in itself." (Apech, emphasis added) And from my The Early Record: Gautama described the fourth concentration as follows: 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. … just as a (person) might sit with (their) head swathed in a clean cloth; even so (one) sits suffusing (their) body with purity… (AN III 25-28, Pali Text Society Vol. III pg 18-19) ... I would say that the “purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind” of the fourth concentration is the freedom of mind when the location of the base of consciousness becomes the source of the action of posture and carriage, apart from any “determinate thought”. (emphasis added) "The base of consciousness"--I got that description from koun Franz: 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/)

For what it's worth, old3bob... at one time Buddhists did share all land and properties, they refused to receive money, they were itinerant beggars (which the Brahmin class looked down on in the day, as much as it's looked down on today) who were forbidden to till the soil. Somewhere in China around 5th century c.e., the recipient of Gautama's robe and bowl decided to establish a monastery and put the monks to work to make it self-supporting. Something to do with the work ethic in China, so I've read.

Gautama taught: …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 pg 294) He also taught the ceasing 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 IV pg 85) Action ceases, he said, in states of concentration--speech in the first state, deed in the fourth, and "perceiving and sensing" (action of the mind) in the final state. Fixed thought commences action as much as foolish thought. Gautama prescribed sitting down cross-legged, perhaps on the roots of trees, and pursuing the peculiar happiness that occurs "aloof from pleasures of the senses, aloof from unskilled states of mind" (MN 1 246-247, Vol I pg 301). He saw the first concentration as coincident with thought directed and sustained, but already in the second concentration thought applied and sustained has ceased. He taught these things as fundamental in recognizing the existence of suffering, in understanding its origin and its cessation, and in walking a path that results in the cessation of suffering. The cessation of suffering may be a side-effect of the union with the divine in Hinduism, in Sufism, in Christianity, and in other faiths, but it's front and center in the teachings of Gautama the Buddha, and the things he considered unnecessary to the cessation of suffering or even counter-productive, he left out or refuted. That's my take.

My father used to say, "I have a mind like concrete--all mixed up and permanently set."

The quote from Wikipedia about mahamudra in my last post used "non-dual" as an adjective, to describe the nature of mind: "... the unique features of mahamudra such as... the non-dual nature of mind...." I suppose we could debate whether the mind has a non-dual nature. That's different from debating the differences between a dual and a non-dual perspective. Another of "the unique features of mahamudra" was "the importance of Pointing-out instruction by a guru". That says to me that the non-dual nature of the mind is not discovered through thought (and I'm sure everybody here agrees with that), but I think it can be uncovered in the act of falling asleep, even without a guru.

The "Mahamudra" and non-dualism in the Buddhist tradition, an historical note from Wikipedia ("Mahamudra"): The actual practice and lineage of mahāmudrā can be traced back to wandering mahasiddhas or great adepts during the Indian Pala Dynasty (760-1142), beginning with the 8th century siddha Saraha. Saraha's Dohas (songs or poems in rhyming couplets) are the earliest mahamudra literature extant, and promote some of the unique features of mahamudra such as the importance of Pointing-out instruction by a guru, the non-dual nature of mind, and the negation of conventional means of achieving enlightenment such as samatha-vipasyana meditation, monasticism, rituals, tantric practices and doctrinal study in favor of mahamudra 'non-meditation' and 'non-action'. Later Indian and Tibetan masters such as Padmavajra, Tilopa, and Gampopa incorporated mahamudra into tantric, monastic and traditional meditative frameworks. I particularly like the bit about "non-meditation" and "non-action". "The non-dual nature of mind", the self-awareness that can take place at the hara, especially in "non-meditation" when breathing becomes a "non-action". More history I didn't know, from that most trustworthy of all sources (kidding), Wikipedia ("Tilopa"): (Tilopa) became a holder of all the tantric lineages, possibly the only person in his day to do so. As well as the way of insight, and Mahamudra he learned and passed on the Way of Methods, today known as the 6 Yogas of Naropa, and guru yoga. Naropa is considered his main student. He began to travel throughout India, receiving teachings from many gurus: from Saryapa he learned of inner heat (Sanskrit: caṇḍalī, Tib. tummo, inner heat); from Nagarjuna he received the radiant light (Sanskrit: prabashvara) and illusory body (Sanskrit: maya deha, Tib. gyulu) teachings (Cakrasaṃvara Tantra), Lagusamvara tantra, or Heruka Abhidharma; from Lawapa, the dream yoga; from Sukhasiddhi, the teachings on life, death, and the bardo (between life states, and consciousness transference) (phowa); from Indrabhuti, he learned of wisdom (prajña); and from Matangi, the resurrection of the dead body. As advised by Matangi, Tilopa started to work at a brothel in Bengal for a prostitute called Dharima as her solicitor and bouncer. During the day, he was grinding sesame seeds for his living. During a meditation, he received a vision of Vajradhara and, according to legend, the entirety of mahamudra was directly transmitted to Tilopa. After receiving the transmission, Tilopa meditated in two caves, and bound himself with heavy chains to hold the correct meditation posture. He practiced for many years and then met the mind of all buddhas in the form of Diamond Holder Vajradhara. He is considered the grandfather of today's Kagyu Lineage. Naropa, his most important student, became his successor and carried and passed on the teachings. Again from Wikipedia, an eye-witness account of Naropa: I thought I would go see the Lord Naropa, since his reputation was so great. I went east from Magadha for a month, as I had heard that the Lord was staying in the monastery known as Phullahari. Very great merit arose from being able to go see him. On the day I arrived, they said some feudal prince had come to pay homage. So I went to the spot, and a great throne had been erected. I sat right in front of it. The whole crowd started buzzing, "The Lord is coming!" I looked and the Lord was physically quite corpulent, with his white hair [stained with henna] bright red, and a vermilion turban on. He was being carried [on a palanquin] by four men, and was chewing betel-leaf....

“The Mahamudra: Eliminating the Darkness of Ignorance” would seem to be a major work in Tibetan Buddhism. Not an expert, in Tibetan Buddhism. From Wikipedia, "Mahamudra": The actual practice and lineage of mahāmudrā can be traced back to wandering mahasiddhas or great adepts during the Indian Pala Dynasty (760-1142), beginning with the 8th century siddha Saraha. Saraha's Dohas (songs or poems in rhyming couplets) are the earliest mahamudra literature extant, and promote some of the unique features of mahamudra such as the importance of Pointing-out instruction by a guru, the non-dual nature of mind, and the negation of conventional means of achieving enlightenment such as samatha-vipasyana meditation, monasticism, rituals, tantric practices and doctrinal study in favor of mahamudra 'non-meditation' and 'non-action'. Later Indian and Tibetan masters such as Padmavajra, Tilopa, and Gampopa incorporated mahamudra into tantric, monastic and traditional meditative frameworks. I try to serve it up fresh, when I'm writing on someone's thread here on Dao Bums, although I frequently quote from what I've written on my own site. I try to say something I need to hear, in the belief that if I succeed, I'm probably not the only one that can hear it. If someone speaks from experience, then I'm sure we can communicate, although we may speak different languages not only in terms of our country of origin, but also in terms of the symbolism of that experience. Is it really necessary to claim experience, or can we just speak from that experience in a way that advances our own understanding, and allow others to do the same? I put it to you!

(A recent post on my own site, that I thought might provoke comment here.) I wrote in a recent correspondence: My practice is getting more interesting. I think I mentioned that I took up meditation in the first place because I was unhappy with my mind—I didn’t seem to be able to avoid a tendency to carry on thinking, past when the thoughts were fresh. Now I see that I can turn my attention to my location, to that singularity in the location of awareness that acts in the movement of breath without the exercise of will, and from there find relaxation and calm until the thoughts come fresh again. The weird thing is, friends now mention to me that they experience some of the same dissatisfaction with their minds. I feel at a total loss to help these friends, who don’t sit. Just thinking doesn’t touch it, so even my best explanation is not likely to be helpful, but maybe I can be a better example of my own medicine. A friend sent me the last part of this: Normally consciousness relies on all the bodily elements as its basis. During the death process, however, the elements as bases progressively fail and consciousness relies on less and less of them. This is what experiences the Clear Light of death and passes into the in-between or “bardo” state and on into your next rebirth. Thus meditation on the mind with no object is similar to the tantric ones of taking the Dharmakaya as a pathway for death, in which you simulate in meditation the dissolution process of death and focus finally on the space-like mind itself in the Dharmakaya Clear Light experience. Meditation on no object should not be confused with blank-mindedness in which you are completely dull as if in a stupor or a faint. It is extremely alert, mindful and clear, but as in the Clear Light death meditations, without any object or thoughts. (1) In the dissolution process of the bodily elements as outlined previously, consciousness progressively relies on less elements [dissolution of the elements and three subsequent stages of creative energies are described]. After this comes the Clear Light Dharmakaya experience which can be had at death, falling asleep, fainting or in advanced tantric meditations. (2) The Clear Light Dharmakaya experience, which can be had at falling asleep. My friend sent this to me because he remembered I had written something about falling asleep. I wrote in Waking Up and Falling Asleep about the way awareness moves in the body at the moment of falling asleep. That may or may not be the same thing as experience of “the space-like mind itself”, though I suspect from the description that it is. 1) “The Mahamudra: Eliminating the Darkness of Ignorance”, Wang Chug Dor-je, Alexander Berzin, Beru Khyentze Rinpoche; p. 51-52; commentary by Beru Khyentze Rinpoche on a 16th century C.E. text by the head of the largest sub-school of the four major Tibetan schools of Buddhism. 2) Ibid, p. 142

I experience it falling asleep, or at least I experience a mind that moves in space before falling asleep. I cultivate it with Gautama's instructions when I sit, although I don't move through the states in order most of the time. Happy to return of necessity to a mind that moves in space, mostly. awaken, I'm still hoping maybe you can outline the rabbit and the black liver for me, maybe here, and spare me trying to find instruction on it on your thread--you have a lot of pages, there.

I think I should have quoted what Roshi-sama said exactly (or at least, what he said according to Jiryu Mark): “No grasping—only point here.” When I'm not grasping anything, so that my consciousness is unstationed, then as koun Franz said my mind tends to move to my center of balance. When I sit cross-legged, or otherwise adopt a bent-knee posture, that center of balance tends to be below and behind the navel. Roughly the hara. Nevertheless, the trick is crossing through the suffocation response, the way Navy Seals and other free-divers do: My husband is a spear fisherman and he can hold his breath underwater for almost four minutes. He was trained to do so in a manner similar to how they train Navy Seals. They are able to do relaxation techniques and override their body’s impulse to panic. I’m not sure if everyone can accomplish this or if they are outliers. But one important point that I think fits into the topic here. They have to be wary of something called shallow water blackout. They will hold their breath without the panic response literally until they pass out underwater, and drown (even if they are only sitting on the bottom of a pool with a foot or two of water above them). (more on that, and the source of the quote above, here) It's "no grasping", that frees the location of self-awareness to move in an inhalation or an exhalation, and results in a one-pointedness of mind at the hara ("only point here"). On the dance floor, taking the people in the room and on the other side of the wall into the location of self-awareness, "only point" moves more.

I think Alexandra David-Neel mentions in "Magic and Mystery in Tibet" a Tibetan belief that only one sage is necessary in a particular territory to keep the weather right. Also, maybe from the same source, that those who affect the weather this way often take to living in the desert. Why would they do that, take to living in the desert. I would guess because when they are in good health, they bring the sun out, and that's not necessarily a good thing all the time. Maybe that has something to do with the halo. Another angle. Gautama spoke of a practice for the development of psychic powers, that went like this: 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. (Sanyutta-Nikaya V 263, Pali Text Society V 5 p 235) What I wrote about the last line (the full commentary is here): “Thus with wits alert, with wits unhampered, he cultivates his mind to brilliancy”: Gautama explained that a monk “cultivates his mind to brilliancy” when the monk’s “consciousness of light is well grasped, his consciousness of daylight is well-sustained.” When consciousness leads the balance of the body to open the ability of nerves to feel, sensory awareness is heightened, and through heightened awareness the sense of location as consciousness occurs is sharpened. As to the “consciousness of light” or of “daylight”, the gland which is perhaps most responsive to daylight in the body is the pineal gland (the pineal produces melatonin), and the gland is supported by a bone in the interior of the skull (the sphenoid) that flexes and extends with the rhythm of the cranial-sacral fluid. The bases of psychic power were desire, energy, thought, and investigation (together with the co-factors of concentration and struggle), and they were to be cultivated by the use of the four-part method described in Gautama’s stanza. Whether or not there is a way to perform miracles and see the past lives or karmic fate of others, I can’t say; that there may be a way to bring about psychic experience through a “consciousness of daylight”, and possibly the occurrence of consciousness at the place where daylight most affects the endocrinology of the body, I would guess could be (although the precise nature of that phenomena may not be what it was thought to be in 500 B.C.E, as for example, the miracle of “handling and stroking the sun and moon with the hand”).

“Shikantaza not here,” he insisted in elementary English, pointing to his head. “Not here,” he continued, pointing to his heart. “Only point here!” He drove his fist into his lower belly, the energy center that the Japanese call hara. I have spent the last several years in an American Zen temple that by our standards is strict and intense, but my training, I am finding, seems moot here. I have labored for years to open out my meditation—which is, after all “just sitting”—away from reliance on heavy-handed internal or external concentration objects, and toward a more subtle, broad, open awareness. Roshi-sama is said to be a master of this wide practice of shikantaza, the objectless meditation characteristic of the Soto school. But he insists, again and again, weeping at my deafness, shouting at my stubbornness, that hara focus is precisely shikantaza. That it makes no sense makes it no less inspiring; it is his presence, not his words, that I believe. “No grasping—only point here.” He rested his fist on his belly. I had nothing to say. … “Here,” he said, pointing to his chin and thrusting it out to show me that doing so made his back slump in bad Zen posture. He looked up at me with wide, soft brown eyes, and a kind smile that exposed his crooked teeth. In a warm, encouraging voice, like a boy addressing his puppy, he pointed to his back and said, “Like this no good. Keep try!” My posture is quite good; I’ve been told so by peers and teachers alike in the U.S…. (“Two Shores of Zen”, by Jiryu Mark Rutschman-Byler; emphasis added) "Sometimes zazen gets up and walks around"--zazen's action? More on Roshi-sama's reply to Jiryu Mark's "objectless meditation" ("only point here", fist on belly): The “hara” (or “tanden”) was also mentioned by Dogen’s teacher, Rujing: Breath enters and reaches the tanden, and yet there is no place from which it comes. Therefore it is neither long nor short. Breath emerges from the tanden, and yet there is nowhere it goes. Therefore it is neither short nor long. (“Eihei Koroku”, Dogen, vol. 5, #390, trans. Okumura) Rujing mentions the tanden, but the focus of his statement is really the rejection of the comprehension of the long or short in inhalation or exhalation. Rujing appears to be taking issue with the second component of the “setting up of mindfulness” in the teaching of Gautama the Buddha: Whether [one] is breathing in a long (breath), breathing out a long (breath), breathing in a short (breath), breathing out a short (breath), one comprehends ‘I am breathing in a long (breath), I am breathing out a long (breath), I am breathing in a short (breath), I am breathing out a short (breath).’ (MN III 82-83, Pali Text Society III pg 124) At the same time, Rujing doesn’t abandon the distinction of inhalation and exhalation nor some particulars in the movement of each: he says that inhalation “enters”, then “reaches” the tanden (“yet there is no place from which it comes”); likewise, he says that exhalation “emerges” from the tanden (“yet there is nowhere it goes”). To comprehend “enters” as distinct from “reaches” and to comprehend “emerges” may amount to a comprehension of inhalation or exhalation very similar to that offered by “long” or “short”. (yours truly, Shikantaza and Gautama the Buddha’s “Pleasant Way of Living”) I'm not really aware of my breathing, most of the time. I come back to it when I stop doing, I'm grateful for that.

(old3bob--no offense intended! In my twisted mind, that was actually an appreciation!) 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! (Kobun Chino Otogawa, jikoji.org “On Zazen”, “Shikantaza”) Kobun is talking about an action, the action of sitting. Things enter into that action through the place associated with self-awareness. Gautama's way of living consisted of sixteen elements of mindfulness, each associated in practice with either an in-breath, or an out-breath. Somewhere in India, the emphasis shifted to the place itself, and things. And yet the zazen that acts is consistently associated with the breath, with the element of air (and that "motile" air), at least from what I can gather. Mayu, Zen master Baoche, was fanning himself. A monk approached and said, “Master, the nature of wind is permanent and there is no place it does not reach. Why, then, do you fan yourself?” “Although you understand that the nature of the wind is permanent,” Mayu replied, “you do not understand the meaning of its reaching everywhere.” “What is the meaning of its reaching everywhere?” asked the monk again. Mayu just kept fanning himself. The monk bowed deeply. (“Genjo Koan”, Dogen; tr. Robert Aitken and Kazuaki Tanahashi) That's Dogen's example of the "inconceivable" that is not readily apparent, but "is actualized immediately." Follows his "when you find the place where you are..." (place) and his "when you find your way at this moment" (things). It's about action.

Tempted to post an anvil chorus video, but I'll refrain. Glad you're recovering, Apech, hope the fog lifts soon. Hard to tell, but it sounds like Ralis needs good wishes for a speedy recovery too, and I do wish that! I admit, I'm constantly tempted to preach--I've spent hours on some of the posts on this thread, only to gut the material and start over for lack of life in what I had to say. In speaking to everyone else, not speaking to myself--where's that at! This thread teeters on the edge sometimes. We have our road maps, our GPS's--"are we there yet?" We reassure ourselves that we're already there, and roll the window down. "Mom! OldBob threw up again!" "Ralis hit me!" "Don't make me stop the car!"...

I went through a phase where, after years of vegetarianism, I was finally living on an undeveloped piece of property in Humboldt County. I had for my roommate a man certified disabled by reason of schizophrenia. My mother was sent by the father of an old friend of mine, to see if she needed to commit me (or something). I was into the spirit of things. She had dark glasses on. Ha ha! Wasn't so funny at the time. It was after I gave up the country, moved back to San Francisco (living in a VW bug for weeks), got a job washing dishes at the Good Karma Cafe and a place to live under a staircase in the panhandle, that I had that strange experience where my breath (seemingly) got me up out of a chair and walked me to the door. As I think I've mentioned, I found I could tune into that experience often, and even when "the inconceivable" was not actualized immediately, my deepest-held belief was. I would stand outside my place of employment, waiting for "the inconceivable" to walk me through the door, after which I assumed I was in the right place and let it go. I know that there are folks like Nisargadatta, who spoke about following the instructions of his teacher: I simply followed his instruction, which was to focus the mind on pure being, "I am," and stay in it. I used to sit for hours together, with nothing but the "I am" in my mind and soon the peace and joy and deep all-embracing love became my normal state. In it all disappeared—myself, my guru, the life I lived, the world around me. Only peace remained, and unfathomable silence. (I Am That, Dialogue 51, April 16, 1971). (Wikipedia, "Nisargadatta Maharaj") But we also have many who had the same formidable presence as Nisargadatta who fancied a sex life with young boys. What to make of that presence! Gautama attained the cessation of volition in perceiving and feeling, such that desire, hatred, and ignorance ended and only the "disturbance" of the six senses (including the mind) remained. He didn't stay in that state. He said that he returned to "that first characteristic of concentration in which I ever abide" after he spoke, implying he didn't have concentration when he spoke. I think it's likely that by "that first characteristic", he was referring to one-pointedness of mind, which he identified with concentration. As I've mentioned, that's not "one-pointedness of mind" where awareness is located here and the object of attention is over there. More like just before falling asleep, where the physical location of awareness seems to move freely, and the senses are a part of locating awareness. The characterization of the "Diamond Sutra" corresponds to my experience of "one-pointedness of mind": Let the mind be present without an abode. (tr Venerable Master Hsing Yun, “The Rabbit’s Horn: A Commentary on the Platform Sutra”, Buddha’s Light Publishing p 60) Koun Franz points to a tendency of the mind to move to the center of balance. Cheng Man-Ching speaks about keeping the mind together with the ch'i at the dan-t'ian. Why am I not hearing anything of this from all you Bums? As though working with the body was as unimportant as Nisargadatta made it sound! Where are those channels, central and otherwise? How is it that everybody is happy as a clam in their minds, and not still learning from their bodies?

From Rhys Davids' translation of Kevaddha Sutta: 'There is it that earth, water, fire, and wind, And long and short, and fine and coarse, Pure and impure, no footing find. There is it that both name and form Die out, leaving no trace behind. When intellection ceases they all also cease. (https://obo.genaud.net/dhamma-vinaya/pts/dn/dn.11.rhyt.pts.htm) The subject matter of the sutta is described by Rhys Davids (the founder of the Pali Text Society) as follows: The problem, as put by the Bhikshu to the gods, is: 'Where do the elements pass away?' The Buddha, in giving his solution, first says that that is not the right way to put the question. It ought to be: 'Where do the elements find no foothold; where does that union of qualities that make a person (nāma and rūpa) pass away?' (ibid) The experience associated with Gautama's enlightenment was the cessation of (volition in) perception and sensation (perceiving and feeling). That seems to be the one where the "union of qualities that make a person pass away": And again … 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 [his or her self] to be aught or anywhere or in anything. (MN III 42-45, Pali Text Society Vol III pg 92-94) "Aught or anywhere or in anything"--the union of qualities that make a person have "passed away". I'm only talking about the cessation of (volition in) in-breathing and out-breathing, the experience also described as the cessation of action of the body. Buddhaghosa's description of the windy element, and the motile part of the windy element, accurately describes the feeling when "zazen gets up and walks around" in that cessation, at least to me. Here's a description I made in my post Genjo Koan: There’s a sentence in the “Genjo Koan” where Dogen speaks about the life that fish and birds enjoy, and he says: …each one realizes its limitations at every moment and each one somersaults (in complete freedom) at every place… (translation by Gudo Nishijima) In D. L. Bartilink, “No Special Effort”, and the “Best of Ways”, I wrote about somersaulting in place: The trick is to allow for movement in where I am, even when I’m not moving. The place where I am can “turn and move freely everywhere” (as another translator rendered “somersaults”), and the place where I am can also remain stationary; when the place where I am is free to move yet remains stationary, the rest of me may turn around the place where I am, instead. Cheng Man-Ch’ing spoke of a saying from the classic literature of Tai-Chi, “the millstone turns, but the mind does not turn”: the turning of the millstone is a metaphor for the turning of the waist. The mind not turning is the central equalibrium resulting from the sinking of ch’i to the tan-t’ien. ‘The millstone turns but the mind does not turn’ is an oral teaching within a family transmission. It is similar to two expressions in the T’ai-chi ch’uan classics which compare the waist to an axle or a banner. This is especially noteworthy. After learning this concept my art made rapid progress. ("Cheng Tzu’s Thirteen Treatises on T’ai Chi Ch’uan", Professor Cheng Man Ch’ing, tr Benjamin Pang Jeng Lo and Martin Inn, p 75, ©1985 by Juliana T. Cheng)

Puts me in mind of koun Franz's comments about the eyes: I was taught we should be constantly aware of our eyes when we sit. Specifically, we should be aware of how we narrow and widen the aperture, how our field of vision gets narrower and narrower as our mind gets narrower and narrower. When you see that clearly, you also see how easily you can just open it up; the degree to which we open it up is the degree to which we’re here. (“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/) What is helpful to me regarding thoughts and thought is Gautama's mindfulness of the mind, which I described on this thread a ways back. Basically, find appreciation of thought, and detach the mind. If I can't appreciate the thought, maybe appreciate being able to think at all! Without the appreciation, detachment is hard to find. I will think about the temperature of my nostrils in inhalation and exhalation, now. And sound bathing. And twelve step!

When the state and its families are confused and out of order, there are (the teachings of) loyalty and faithfulness. (Tao Te Ching, ch. 18) Ain't that the truth!