Mark Foote

Nevertheless, simple as falling asleep: 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. 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. (“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, and Ibid, p. 142) I have had three people who read my Waking Up and Falling Asleep who were able to use what they had read, to fall asleep. A miracle, to observe the freedom of the singular location of self-awareness to move, and as natural as can be. Who does such a thing!

Drawing Water and Chopping Wood (from "An Unauthorized and Incomplete Guide to Zazen", by yours truly) (photo by Ingrid Ringel) Miraculous power and marvelous activity Drawing water and chopping wood. (Pangyun, a lay Zen practitioner, eight century C.E.) Cleave a (piece of) wood, I am there; lift up the stone and you will find Me there. (The Gospel According to Thomas, pg 43 log. 77, ©1959 E. J. Brill) The breath in emphasizes flexion in the body, as does the action of lifting an object; the breath out emphasizes extension in the body, as does the action of wielding an axe to split a piece of wood. The weight of the entire body can bear at a single point in the movement of inhalation, as though lifting an object; the weight of the entire body can bear at a single point in the movement of exhalation, as though cleaving a block of wood. The weight of the body at a single point generates reciprocal innervation in the muscles of posture, to return a balance in the movement of breath. If the weight of the entire body returns a balance through the movement of a whole inhalation, that’s a miraculous power of the entire universe, as far as I’m concerned; if the weight of the entire body returns a balance through the movement of a whole exhalation, that’s a marvelous activity.

Have you noticed that everybody in live media now responds to any question with "that's a great question"? That's a great question. Gautama the Shakyan described action as identically 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 pg 294) Gautama taught the cessation of "action", first with regard to speech, then with regard to the body, and finally with regard to the mind. He spoke of "the cessation of inhalation and exhalation" (action of the body) and "the cessation of perceiving and feeling" (action of the mind)--that's shorthand for "the cessation of (determinate thought in) inhalation and exhalation" and "the cessation of (determinate thought in) perceiving and feeling". He described what it's like, when determinate thought (habit or volition) in "perceiving and feeling" ceases: ... [an individual] comprehends thus, ‘This concentration of mind … is effected and thought out. But whatever is effected and thought out, that is impermanent, it is liable to stopping.’ When [the individual] knows this thus, sees this thus, [their] mind is freed from the canker of sense-pleasures and [their] mind is freed from the canker of becoming and [their] mind is freed from the canker of ignorance. In freedom is the knowledge that [one] is freed and [one] comprehends: “Destroyed is birth, brought to a close the (holy)-faring, done is what was to be done, there is no more of being such or so’. [They] comprehend thus: “The disturbances there might be resulting from the canker of sense-pleasures do not exist here; the disturbances there might be resulting from the canker of becoming do not exist here; the disturbances there might be resulting from the canker of ignorance do not exist here. And there is only this degree of disturbance, that is to say the six sensory fields that, conditioned by life, are grounded on this body itself.” (MN III 108-109, Pali Text Society Vol III pg 151-152) That was the Gautamid's experience. The significance of the experience is in the relationship of determinate thought/willful action to suffering: That which we will…, and that which we intend to do and that wherewithal we are occupied:–this becomes an object for the persistance of consciousness. The object being there, there comes to be a station of consciousness. Consciousness being stationed and growing, rebirth of renewed existance takes place in the future, and here from birth, decay, and death, grief, lamenting, suffering, sorrow, and despair come to pass. Such is the uprising of this mass of ill. Even if we do not will, or intend to do, and yet are occupied with something, this too becomes an object for the persistance of consciousness… whence birth… takes place. But if we neither will, nor intend to do, nor are occupied about something, there is no becoming of an object for the persistance of consciousness. The object being absent, there comes to be no station of consciousness. Consciousness not being stationed and growing, no rebirth of renewed existence takes place in the future, and herefrom birth, decay-and-death, grief, lamenting, suffering, sorrow and despair cease. Such is the ceasing of this entire mass of ill. (SN II 65, Pali Text Society SN Vol II pg 45) Insight into dependent causation, like that above, is usually taken to be the substance of Gautama's enlightenment. If you're asking whether I've seen all this for myself, I can say that I have seen the cessation of activities of the body, and the benefit of extending the mind of compassion through the four quarters, above and below, which extension Gautama claimed was the basis for the induction of the first of the further states. I believe that what Gautama experienced and described with regard to action and the meditative states was real. His analysis of the basis of suffering, at least as cited above, makes sense to me. All of which motivates me to sit, and to explore the specific sixteen elements of mindfulness that Gautama described as his way of living. I do believe now that the mindfulness he described is a rhythm of the sixteen, not a state of mind, and the lynch pin is mindfulness of the cessation of action with regard to the body. That cessation provides an anchor that allows a rhythm of the elements of mindfulness, including cessation. I'm working on it, when I have to, which is more frequently now--ha ha! (Note to the Dao Bums programmers--I believe your mini-editor is interpreting: left-bracket d right bracket as the start of line through, why is that!)

I'll try to add this again, below.

(Google translate renders awaken's post as follows:) The relationship between the four meditations and refining the essence and transforming the qi, refining the qi to transform the spirit, and practicing the spirit and returning the emptiness First of all, you must be able to clearly know what the four meditations contain, and then you must also know what the emptiness of spirit, qi and spirit contains, so that you can compare them, otherwise it will just be a bunch of misunderstandings. The characteristics of the first jhana among the four jhāna, one state of mind, the factor of joy and enlightenment, and the presence of search and service, this feature is that you practice one place, start to concentrate, and feel joyful. Usually, you will reach the first jhana at the stage of cultivating qi and qi. degree. The characteristics of the second Zen are also a state of mind, without seeking and waiting, but the second Zen also has the characteristics of light, so the degree of the second Zen is probably in the state of black liver, and black liver is the soul of the sun. According to Zhou Yi Shen Tong Qi and Wuzhen, Black Liver = Sun Soul = Yang God, so the level of Second Chan is practicing God. The characteristic of the three meditations is the beginning of renunciation, that is, the beginning of the opening of the mind orifices. This stage belongs to the rabbit marrow. According to Zhou Yishen Tongji and Wuzhen chapters, rabbit marrow = moon soul = yin spirit, so the level of the three meditations is the practice of spirit stage. The second meditation is in the first stage of practicing God, and the third meditation is in the latter stage of practicing God. The second Chan belongs to the stage of cultivating the spirit to transform the spirit into the spirit, and the third Chan belongs to the stage of training the spirit to restore the emptiness. The reason for this division is that whether the heart orifice is opened or not is a big dividing point. If the heart orifice is not opened, the practice procedure is from qi training to black liver light. If the practitioner's heart orifices are opened, the procedure of practice is from black liver light to rabbit marrow light to the second stage of yang generation, so the procedure will be different, because the degree causes the starting point to be different. The four meditations are the latter stage of equanimity, so there will eventually be the phenomenon of Nirvana, that is, the phenomenon above the second stage of yang rebirth, which belongs to the level of practicing spirit and returning to emptiness.

Friend locked by the foot that follows the vertebrae held by the spirit (Stigweard's charge--5, 7, 5)

The predjudice within grows out of fear and dis-ease love one another

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. (“The Mahamudra: Eliminating the Darkness of Ignorance”, Wang Chug Dor-je, Alexander Berzin, Beru Khyentze Rinpoche; p.142; commentary by Beru Khyentze Rinpoche; bracketed summary mine) I write about the practice of falling asleep (and waking up), here. More from the commentary on the Mahamudra (above): 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. (Ibid, pg 51-52) "Meditation on the mind with no object"--how about this: Gautama emphasized “one-pointedness of mind” as a characteristic of concentration, and what I experience is a complete freedom of the singular location of self-awareness to move in space, with the coordination of the body following autonomically from the location of “mind”. (from my post, Meditation Manuals) More from the same post: The location of that mind is often in the “hara”, but the aim is to allow for experience like that Gautama described for the fourth of the initial states of concentration: 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 don't often experience an orderly progression of states of concentration, more like a jumble, but I keep an eye on "freedom of the singular location of self-awareness to move in space", which to me is "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". And I keep in mind the "head swathed in a clean cloth". In several sermons, Gautama spoke of the entire body so swathed, not just the head--I look more to that. My explanation: "a heightened ability to feel dermatomes, as a consequence of the relaxed nerve exits from the sacrum and spine provided by an even stretch of ligaments". I wrote that to describe how ch'i "manifests in the skin and hair" (here), but I think it applies to the "clean cloth" as well. As Gautama said about each of the jhanas: "... for whatever (one) imagines it to be, it is otherwise.” (MN III 42-45)

If you hadn't found it, old3bob, I would have sourced it for you! Indeed, a fascinating passage. The assumption is that some of the order were psychic enough to discern the particular jhana the Gautamid was in, at the time of his demise--that seems doubtful to me. The second assertion in that passage, that Gautama returned to the fourth of the material jhanas and was in that state at the moment of his demise, I think is the reason for the inclusion of this paragraph. Actually, as far as the first four volumes of the Pali Nikayas are concerned, the jhanas were the way Gautama surpassed the jhanas. How's that. The record says he studied under two of the foremost teachers of his day. He attained "the plane of no-thing" under one and "neither perception and sensation nor yet not perception and sensation" under the other. He was unsatisfied with these attainments, and succeeded in arriving at "the cessation of perception and sensation" on his own. I have no doubt that this arrival was synonymous with his enlightenment, and that his insight into dependent causation and the four truths came from this experience. Cessation being the cessation of action based on determinate thought (AN III 415), what Gautama experienced was the falling away of habit and volition in perceiving and feeling, the cessation of habit and volition in the action of the mind (and what was left was "the disturbance" of the six sense fields, MN III 108-109). Why did the elders posit that Gautama was in the fourth of the material jhanas when he died? The attainment of the fourth jhana is synonymous with the cessation of (habit or volition in) action of the body, and that cessation I believe was Gautama's daily touchstone. In many of his lectures, he recounted the four material jhanas, and then spoke of "the survey-sign of the concentration", leaving off the non-material jhanas entirely. I believe the fourth jhana was the primary cessation in his own practice of mindfulness, the fifteenth of the sixteen elements of his mindfulness. At one point in his teaching career, Gautama emphasized the sixteen elements of his own practice to his followers, as a thing "peaceful and calm, and a pleasant way of living besides". I think he understood that even though he taught "lack of desire" as the means to attain and transcend each of the jhanas, his followers focused their intent solely on attainment, to their own detriment. That would be why the elders had him deceasing in the fourth of the material jhanas, to lay the emphasis on something more attainable, so the monks and nuns wouldn't knock their brains out thinking they must arrive at "the cessation of perceiving and feeling" at the moment of their death. The details of his teaching as far as I've been able to gather, are here.

Maybe you could say that. I like the characterization of the development of chi in the classics: With this method of circulating 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”, translated by Wile, 1st ed pg 17) That, I think, corresponds to the first four jhanas.

I believe Michael is retired, and his transmitted students are hosting Jikoji collectively. Doug's a mainstay of the establishment, no doubt! Only slightly off-topic, all this last, my apologies to the OPster.

... (Kobun) emphasized life-in-the-world, encouraged his students to marry and have children, and to live the Dharma like guerillas, devotedly, but in secret. Yup. At least, that was my take. And if we succeeded, we would right the ship all the way to Japan.

I don't think liveanddare dot com is Shinzen's, though I see the author of the PDF on posture was a Shinzen aficionado. Not you either, I guess! "I am often startled when I am settling in to find a spot, usually as I slowly lean back, where my mind just stops." When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. (Dogen, Genjo Koan tr. Aitken and Tanahashi). "... it's always open awareness, which is the same. One pointedness, yes, but taking in the entire frame of experience." When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point… (Ibid) Ok, all three parts of it: 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. (Ibid) Kobun: "You know, sometimes zazen gets up and walks around" (closing a lecture I heard at SFZC). The former abbot of Jikoji is a mellow and dedicated fellow, IMHO. I'm sure the abbot of Hokoji is the same, and I admire Vanja, the head of the tribe. I'll have to read the biography, the first few paragraphs are sterling (ha ha). From my latest post: It’s definitely a catch-22. It’s necessary to have “freedom of the singular location of self-awareness to move in space” in order to generate and sustain an even stretch, but it’s also necessary to have an even stretch in order to experience “freedom of the singular location of self-awareness”. (One Thing and Another) IMHO, that's why we sit everyday, to re-establish the stretch (and the freedom). As I quote at the end of that piece--Gautama's advice on the attainment of states of concentration: “Lack of desire”, said Gautama, “by means of lack of desire.” (MN III 220, Pali Text Society Vol III pg 269)

That! I try to provide myself with the facts, and hope that the posture will come together, to the extent necessary. I tend to focus on the development of "one-pointedness of mind", but the "drop" is the same: "... making self-surrender [one’s] object of thought, [one] lays hold of concentration, lays hold of one-pointedness of mind." (on "the ‘controlling power of concentration’", SN V 199-200, Vol V pg 175-176) Self-surrender, for sure. You might like my summary of the teaching, in The Early Record--I'm not often able to practice in the way Gautama practiced, but sometimes his instruction is helpful to me. Which is startling. I sit in hope of cessation (of habitual or voluntary action) with regard to action of the body and "the sign of the concentration", for the rhythm of mindfulness, and I return to "lack of desire, by means of lack of desire" so just sitting. Kobun was my main influence, although I only attended his lectures and sat a sesshin with him for a few days, never was his student. I like to think of myself as a member of his "guerilla army". I wrote about one of the "more to the picture than meets the eye" things about sitting, and Kobun's passing, here. I did look at the website associated with the PDF about posture--if that's you, you are certainly ambitious behind sharing the teaching, I wish you good luck.

I tend to draw one foot back under the chair, when I have occasion to sit for any length of time on a chair. One foot flat on the floor, the other on the ball of the foot. Never heard "Indian style" called a quarter-lotus before! It's a difficulty, reconciling "cessation" (of action that follows from determinate thought) with directions about posture. I thought I understood the science, but I got one thing wrong. I write about it, here: https://zenmudra.com/for-a-friend-revisited-anm/

Any posture with both knees on the ground for a period of over twenty minutes is demanding, for me. I've been sitting at least once a day for something like 50 years, and it's still demanding. Like Dennis Merkel, I've gone from half-lotus to full-lotus to Burmese, over the years. It's the basic thing that Gautama did, and that he advised his monks and nuns to do. The other practice was the four-fold mindfulness described in Anapanasati (mindfulness of the body, the feelings, the mind, and the frame of mind), and that has taken me forever to appreciate, because the actions he described (relaxing the activity of the body, calming the activity of the senses, detaching from the activity of the mind, and witnessing the cessation of habitual or volitive activity) did not seem to have a natural rhythm in me. Finding some semblance for me required understanding the kinesthesiology of posture, and in particular the role of the stretch of ligaments in the activity of the body. I wouldn't give up on sitting, nor on the practice in the Pali suttas of mindfulness around the movement of breath.

African Lwa-Tzu has me on pins and needles dancing on a string

Don't take my word for it! Be aware of where you really are 24 hours a day. You must be most attentive. (“Zen Letters: the Teachings of Yuanwu”, tr. Thomas Cleary, pg 53) When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. (“Genjo Koan”, Dogen, trans. by Aitken and Tanahashi) A sight to soothe the sore head (I hope), from Clear Lake, California:

Just to be clear, I'm not saying focus the attention on one point. I am saying that in a healthy individual, there exists a singular location of self-awareness, and it's possible to stay with that sense of location. What I wrote in Old Habits: In modern neurobiology, there’s a recognition that dysfunction in any of the senses connected with balance (equalibrioception, proprioception, graviception, and oculoception) can result in an out-of-body experience, and that the precise nature of that out-of-body experience will depend on exactly which sense is dysfunctional.* In some out-of-body experiences, the feeling of place associated with awareness occurs in two locations at once. Such a duality is a particular cause of distress to those who experience it, because the self is so closely identified with a singular feeling of place in awareness. Our most intimate feeling of self, then, is a coordination of particular senses that gives place to awareness... (* Blanke and Mohr, “Out-of-body experience, heautoscopy, and autoscopic hallucination of neurological origin Implications for neurocognitive mechanisms of corporeal awareness and self consciousness”, Brain Research Reviews, Volume 50, Issue 1, 1 December 2005, Pages 184-199.)

What about the Gautamid's description of his enlightenment, in the Middle Length sayings of the Pali sermons? ... [an individual comprehends thus, 'This concentration of mind ... is effected and thought out. But whatever is effected and thought out, that is impermanent, it is liable to stopping.' When [the individual] knows this thus, sees this thus, [their] mind is freed from the canker of sense-pleasuress and [their] mind is freed from the canker of becoming and [their] mind is freed from the canker of ignorance. In freedom is the knowledge that [one] is freed and [one] comprehends: "Destroyed is birth, brought to a close the (holy) faring, done is what was to be done, there is no more of being such or so'. [They] comprehend thus: "The disturbances there might be resulting from the canker of sense-pleasures do not exist here; the disturbances there might be resulting from the canker of becoming do not exist here; the disturbances there might be resulting from the canker of ignorance do not exist here. And there is only this degree of disturbance, that is to say the six sensory fields that, conditioned by life, are grounded on this body itself." (MN III 108-109, Pali Text Society translation Vol III pg 151-152)

... the Clear Light Dharmakaya experience which can be had at death, falling asleep, fainting or in advanced tantric meditations. (“The Mahamudra: Eliminating the Darkness of Ignorance”, Wang Chug Dor-je, Alexander Berzin, Beru Khyentze Rinpoche; p. 142; commentary by Beru Khyentze Rinpoche) What I wrote, in Waking Up and Falling Asleep: Just before I fall asleep, my awareness can move very readily, and my sense of where I am tends to move with it. ... When my awareness shifts readily, I realize that my ability to feel my location in space is made possible in part by the freedom of my awareness to move. ... When I allow what I feel to enter into where I am, then my awareness remains free, and I can relax and keep my wits about me. Here's a description made to me on Dao Bums by "humble one", some years back: I woke up at 4:30 AM, after a quick drink of water. returned to bed and tried your practice. I hope I did it correctly, I was somewhat surprised that my mind moved around quite a bit. not fast, but in slow motion the awareness would shift, from left cheek to right side of torso etc. The end result was a light sleep state... The ability to stay with the location of self-awareness can be experienced very readily in falling asleep. The thoughts trail off and space opens up for the location of self-awareness to shift and move. Many times I've thought, I'm much too aware of where I am right now, of where my awareness is situated in my body, to fall asleep. Last thought.

I would say the experience of a singularity in the location of self-awareness is co-existent with the experience of "nothingness", they are really one experience. Steve talked about open space, with clarity. That's the environment in the experience of "the freedom of the singular location of self-awareness to move", the mind that is "present without abode" (Diamond Sutra), and the "clear light dharmakaya" (Naropa, I believe). From my The Early Record: Gautama spoke about the induction of concentration: Making self surrender the object of thought, one lays hold of concentration, one lays hold of one-pointedness of mind. (SN V 200, Pali Text Society V 176) “One-pointedness of mind” could mean the steady focus of attention on some particular object, as Zen teacher koun Franz outlined: Okay… So, have your hands in the cosmic mudra, palms up, thumbs touching, and there’s this common instruction: place your mind here. Different people interpret this differently. Some people will say this means to place your attention here, meaning to keep your attention on your hands. It’s a way of turning the lens to where you are in space so that you’re not looking out here and out here and out here. It’s the positive version, perhaps, of ‘navel gazing’. (“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/) However, a steady focus of attention on some particular object is not the only way to interpret “place your mind here”: The other way to understand this is to literally place your mind where your hands are–to relocate mind (let’s not say your mind) to your centre of gravity, so that mind is operating from a place other than your brain. Some traditions take this very seriously, this idea of moving your consciousness around the body. I wouldn’t recommend dedicating your life to it, but as an experiment, I recommend trying it, sitting in this posture and trying to feel what it’s like to let your mind, to let the base of your consciousness, move away from your head. One thing you’ll find, or that I have found, at least, is that you can’t will it to happen, because you’re willing it from your head. To the extent that you can do it, it’s an act of letting go–and a fascinating one. (Ibid) Most people can concentrate their attention on their hands, and they don’t need to make self-surrender the object of their thought in order to do so. However, as koun Franz pointed out, some surrender of personal agency is required in order for “the base of consciousness” to shift location. Here is Gautama’s description of the feeling of the first state of concentration: … as a handy bathman or attendant might strew bath-powder in some copper basin and, gradually sprinkling water, knead it together so that the bath-ball gathered up the moisture, became enveloped in moisture and saturated both in and out, but did not ooze moisture; even so (one) 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 pg 18-19) The analogy Gautama provided is actually incomplete. The parallel for the copper basin is the body, the parallel for soap and water is zest and ease, but zest and ease cannot be kneaded into a solid the way soap and water can be worked into a “bath-ball”. I would suggest that the parallel for the bath-ball is the mind that moves away from the head. That mind, or the location of that mind, can be “enveloped” and “saturated” with zest and ease, until the location of that mind becomes palpable. The "singular location of self-awareness that moves" and the clear space in which it moves--one experience to me.

Gautama's insight had to do with the nature of suffering. He gave several expositions of the chain of cause and effect that leads to suffering--my favorite runs something like this: ignorance > actions that arise from "determinate thought" > stationing of consciousness >feeling > craving > identification of self with body, feelings, mind, habitual tendencies, or consciousness. According to Gautama, the identification of self with any of the five categories was identically suffering. The chain doesn't make sense until we experience the cessation of action born of "determinate thought". Gautama taught that such action ceases first in speech, then in the body, and finally in the mind (in "perceiving and feeling"), and that these cessations occur in specific states of concentration. That's what sitting down cross-legged, holding the body upright, and placing mindfulness in front is all about, the cessation of action born of "determinate thought" through the natural occurrence of states of concentration. The state where volitive "perceiving and feeling" ceases was Gautama's singular achievement, and the source of his insight into the chain of causation. As to how he attained the cessation of "perceiving and feeling", he said: "by means of lack of desire." If you see the suffering in grasping after a sense of self, then you may find yourself moved to find a way to the cessation of that suffering. Such a way is what Gautama taught.

I always understood that the curliques on his head in the statuary represented snails that crawled up there to cool his head during his meditation. I see lots of references to a story about 108 snails, but no source. There are statues where Gautama has hair, and I found this: "The earliest Buddha statues discovered by historians are the Gandhara Buddhist statues built by the Bactrian Greeks 300 years after Buddha's death. It's unlikely that the sculptors knew what Buddha looked like." So, Greek sculptors, and besides having hair, the faces are Hellenic. https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-real-story-behind-108-snails-covering-Buddhas-head

Here's Gautama the Buddha's description of the fourth of the initial concentrations, with some explanation I made in The Early Record. Similar description of sensation on the surface of the body, but he described "suffusing the body" rather than "releasing downward": 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) Gautama pointed to a feeling as though the head were “swathed in a clean cloth”, but in other expositions of the fourth concentration, he pointed instead to a feeling as though the whole body were “swathed in a clean cloth”. 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”. As to the basis of the sensation on the surface of body, my best guess is that it is a heightened ability to feel dermatomes, as a consequence of the relaxed nerve exits from the sacrum and spine provided by an even stretch of ligaments. But as the Tai Chi Classics say: The internal develops the ch’i; the external develops the sinews, bones, and skin. (“Master Cheng’s Thirteen Chapters on T’ai-Chi Ch’uan”, translated by Wile, 1st ed pg 17) The explanations by Hakuin and by the Gautamid are about the internal, while my speculation about dermatones and the even stretch of ligaments concerns the external. As far as I can tell, the internal is all about a freedom of the singular location of self-awareness to move in space, and the external concerns relaxation and action generated by the stretch of ligaments. Nevertheless, the lead is internal, suffusing the body with "purity by the pureness of (one's) mind" (freedom of the singular location of self-awareness to move anywhere in the body). As the Tibetans describe it, the "clear light dharmakaya experience", that can be had falling asleep, fainting, or on dying.