Mark Foote

I agree entirely. About the "zest and ease": There can also come a moment when the feelings of zest and ease cease, yet “one-pointedness” and the conscious experience of “reflex movement” in inhalation and exhalation remain. At such a time, said Gautama: … seated, (one) suffuses (one’s) body with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind. (AN 5.28, tr. PTS vol. III pp 18-19, parentheticals paraphrase original) The “pureness of mind” that Gautama referred to is the pureness of the mind without any will or intention to act in the body. There is a feeling of freedom, when the activity of inhalation and exhalation is “reflex movement” regardless of where “one-pointedness” takes place. Zen teachers demonstrate the relinquishment of “voluntary control” of the body in favor of the free location of “one-pointedness of mind”, and they do so constantly. Reb Anderson observed such demonstrations in the actions of Shunryu Suzuki: … I remember (Suzuki’s) dharma talks and I remember him in the zendo—that was wonderful teaching. I remember him moving rocks—wonderful teaching. I remember seeing him eat—that was wonderful teaching. He was teaching all the time in every situation. But when he couldn’t sit anymore and couldn’t walk anymore, he still taught right from there. (Reb Anderson, from a 1995 recording) About the freedom: So, when you practice zazen, your mind should be concentrated in your breathing and this kind of activity is the fundamental activity of the universal being. If so, how you should use your mind is quite clear. Without this experience, or this practice, it is impossible to attain the absolute freedom. (Breathing; Shunryu Suzuki; November 4th 1965, Los Altos; emphasis added) What will be the difference? You have freedom, you know, from everything. That is, you know, the main point. (Sesshin Lecture, Shunryu Suzuki; Day 5 Wednesday, June 9, 1971 San Francisco) In Gautama’s parlance: 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 35.146, tr. Pali Text Society vol IV p 85)

That sounds great. I tried playing with the color myself, feeling slightly unsatisfied with it, but I couldn't improve on it. Your mother is very talented, even if she open-sourced the outline, and I look forward to her further application of that talent! Lucky us, thanks liminal_luke, thanks liminal_luke mom!

I like it--I'm wondering where you got the horse, hopefully open-source!

Is this an external philosophy, or just a statement of fact? 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) For most people, that's what's actually missing, how it can be known, and how it can be reinstated IMHO. From something I'm writing: A person gathers and firms “one-pointededness” (of consciousness held by itself) by extending zest and ease such that “there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded” by the feelings of zest and ease. As I wrote previously: The weight of the body sensed at a particular point in the body can shift the body’s center of gravity, and a shift in the body’s center of gravity can result in what Moshe Feldenkrais termed “reflex movement”. Feldenkrais described how “reflex movement” can be engaged in standing up from a chair: …When the center of gravity has really moved forward over the feet a reflex movement will originate in the old nervous system and straighten the legs; this automatic movement will not be felt as an effort at all. (“Awareness Through Movement”, Moshe Feldenkrais, p 78) “Drenching” the body “so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded” with zest and ease allows the weight of the body and “one-pointedness” to effect “reflex movement” in the activity of the body. In falling asleep, the mind can sometimes react to hypnagogic sleep paralysis with an attempt to reassert control over the muscles of the body, causing a “hypnic jerk”. The extension of a weighted zest and ease can pre-empt the tendency to reassert voluntary control in the induction of concentration, and make possible a conscious experience of “reflex movement” in inhalation and exhalation. (“The Place Where You Stop and Rest”) The moment-to-moment continuation of conscious experience of “reflex movement” marks the cessation of choice in inhalation and exhalation, a cessation that, once experienced in the course of holding consciousness by itself, can be touched on in the course of daily living to provide a rhythm of mindfulness.

Yes, I like the feeling of Nungali's horse. The flame was offered free online, I thought it helped sell the horse as a fire horse, but I can submit the horse without it. Doesn't sound like the professionals on the site are approving of the horse, though...

Breatharians: Cult rocked by charges of leader's secret snacking By Dana Gluckstein

The video not live, but I like the feeling she put into the song.

Bass player on that track was Jack Cassidy, mostly known as the bass player of the Jefferson Airplane. He liked a punk band in LA so much he decided to play with them--here they are at the Oakland Coliseum in 1979:

Hexagram 30 don't breathe down my neck; nighttime I feel, so unreal

and now, gentle tunes are packed away, a new year gallops in with fire

Sometimes I get a message from Cloudflare, that they're unable to connect. Sometimes it just takes 30 seconds or longer to pull up a thread or change between topics. Anybody else experiencing this?

Congratulations, Dwai. I pretty much stick to non-fiction, but I know how much writing means to me, so I applaud your endeavor. Currently waiting for KDP Support to tell me they've hashed out the issues with the cover of my paperback. Sigh...

'Nother cup of coffee for the part that sleeps, please, Self!

I posted a reply on someone's personal practice thread--didn't realize that's what it was, at first. I thought it might be of interest to the wider community. Forthwith! You're right about the circumstances in which the teachings were finally committed to writing, and the language. I wouldn't have to rely on them so much, if anyone else taught the things that are in those texts. I think their uniqueness, especially with regard to states of concentration and mindfulness as a way of living, speaks to their authenticity. Something that might interest you. I spent part of yesterday reading an e-book by Kumari Bhikkyu, titled "What You Might Not Know About Jhana and Samadhi". In the book, he talks about modern Theravadin teachings that separate Samadhi/jhanas from Vipassana in the attainment of enlightenment, based largely on the Visuddhimagga commentary (composed a millennia after Gautama's death). He points out that the Pali sermon teachings do not make such a distinction. Would seem that present-day orthodox Theravadin teaching is not necessarily in accord with the early Buddhist texts. I did write to Kumari Bhikkyu, after I read what he had to say about "one-pointedness of mind": Ekaggacitta has three parts: eka (one) + agga + citta (mind). When a translator renders ekaggatā as “one-pointedness”, he would have to render ekaggacitta as “one-pointed mind”, which you may have seen. “One-pointed mind”—what does it mean? It is an odd expression, not understandable in normal English. Some of what I wrote: Here’s another way of looking at “one-pointedness”, from my experience: … “one-pointedness” occurs when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention at a singular location in the body, and a person “lays hold of one-pointedness” when they remain awake as the singular location shifts. (Just to Sit) I find support from modern neurobiology, which speaks of “the experience that the self is localized at a specific position in space within one’s bodily borders”: A key aspect of the bodily self is self-location, the experience that the self is localized at a specific position in space within one’s bodily borders (embodied self-location). (Journal of Neuroscience 26 May 2010, 30 (21) 7202-7214) I would have to guess that an inability to discover the correlate of "one-pointedness" or "one-pointedness of mind" in personal experience is the cause of the divergence of Theravadin teachings from the the Pali sermon teachings. If a person hasn't had the experience, they can't begin to talk about the concentrations outlined in the Pali sermons, since Gautama made clear that "right concentration" WAS "one-pointedness of mind". Bhikkyu Kumari is not alone in his dismay. Bhikkyu Thannisaro dedicated a sermon to deriding "one-pointedness" (How Pointy is One-pointedness), concluding that it meant focusing one's attention on a single object. I prefer Zen teacher Koun Franz's approach: So (in seated meditation), have your hands… 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’. 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 center 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. (No Struggle [Zazen Yojinki, Part 6], by Koun Franz, from the “Nyoho Zen” site) In Gautama's teaching, the first concentration follows "an act of letting go": Making self-surrender the object of thought, one lays hold of concentration, one lays hold of one-pointedness. (SN 48.10, tr. PTS vol. V p 174)

"Who cooks for you", said the owl! From the piece about Bhikkyu Kumāra's book, What You Might Not Know About Jhana and Samadhi. that I am still working on (many rewrites later): Gautama described the first concentration in detail: … just 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, (a person) steeps, drenches, fills, and suffuses this body with zest and ease, born of solitude, so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded by this lone-born zest and ease. (AN 5.28, tr. Pali Text Society vol. III pp 18-19) How can a singular “bath-ball” be kneaded together, at the same time “zest and ease” is extended so that “there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded”? As I wrote previously: To drench the entire body with the feelings of zest and ease such that “there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded” ensures that the consciousness can remain “one-pointed”, even as the specific position of “one-pointedness” shifts and moves. (“The Place Where You Stop and Rest”, edited) Moreover: Words like “steeps” and “drenches” convey that the weight of the body accompanies the feelings of zest and ease. The weight of the body sensed at a particular point in the body can shift the body’s center of gravity, and a shift in the body’s center of gravity can result in what Moshe Feldenkrais termed “reflex movement”. Feldenkrais described how “reflex movement” can be engaged in standing up from a chair: …When the center of gravity has really moved forward over the feet a reflex movement will originate in the old nervous system and straighten the legs; this automatic movement will not be felt as an effort at all. (“Awareness Through Movement”, Moshe Feldenkrais, p 78) “Drenching” the body “so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded” with zest and ease allows the weight of the body and “one-pointedness” to effect “reflex movement” in the activity of the body. In falling asleep, the mind can sometimes react to hypnagogic sleep paralysis with an attempt to reassert control over the muscles of the body, causing a “hypnic jerk”. The extension of a weighted zest and ease can pre-empt the tendency to reassert voluntary control in the induction of concentration, and make possible a conscious experience of “reflex movement” in inhalation and exhalation. That, and: I remind myself that the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation tends toward coordination by the free placement of consciousness, and look for ease. (Applying the Pali Instructions) Until: So most teacher may say shikantaza is not so easy, you know. It is not possible to continue more than one hour, because it is intense practice to take hold of all our mind and body by the practice which include everything. So in shikantaza, our mind should pervade every parts of our physical being. That is not so easy. (“I have nothing in my mind”, Shunryu Suzuki, July 15, 1969) Gautama spoke similarly about the mind pervading the body: … seated, (one) suffuses (one’s) body with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind. (AN 5.28, tr. PTS vol. III pp 18-19, parentheticals paraphrase original) “The pureness of mind” Gautama referred to is the pureness of the mind without any will or intent with regard to the activity of the body. (Just to Sit) For me, the kinesiology is crucial--that's in Just to Sit, and as soon as I wrote "Just to Sit", I published my book ("A Natural Mindfulness"). It's free online.

If we assume women have more jobs dealing with people, and men have more jobs dealing with things, then is AI better at dealing with people than things?

Courtesy Google: They all have the same ways Of weighing down in the hollows of our beds Abandoned to their mysteries Casually deserting our lives They all have the same ways The men, the sleeping men They all have the same face Serene, relaxed, rejuvenated They resemble well-behaved children As they sometimes smile They all have the same face The men, the sleeping men Sated and languid In the depths of our comfort They sleep heavily Inexorably With persistence Even insolence They sleep liberated Far from everything, far from us We, the eternal, the anxious ones The tender lovers We, the curious ones, watch them With the cunning of mice We, the eternal, the anxious ones We watch them, we watch them The men... Asleep

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 Yōjinki, Part 6], Koun Franz, on Nyoho Zen) From the piece I'm currently writing: The difficulty in the apprehension of “one-pointedness” and “one-pointedness of mind” is made clear in Gautama’s elaboration on the practice of the first concentration: … just 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, (a person) steeps, drenches, fills, and suffuses this body with zest and ease, born of solitude, so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded by this lone-born zest and ease. (AN 5.28, tr. Pali Text Society vol. III pp 18-19) The juxtaposition of a singular “bath-ball” with the extension of “zest and ease” such that “there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded by this lone-born zest and ease” is sure to produce cognitive dissonance. How can a singular “bath-ball” be gathered together at the same time “zest and ease” is extended?

"... Watch their mind", yes? Sometimes when you think that you are doing zazen with an imperturbable mind, you ignore the body, but it is also necessary to have the opposite understanding at the same time. Your body is practicing zazen in imperturbability while your mind is moving. (“Whole-Body Zazen”, Shunryu Suzuki; June 28, 1970, Tassajara [edited by Bill Redican]) The advice I plan to give my neighbor, if we ever sit together again (he's never sat, and our one attempt ended early): I don’t think I’ll advise my friend to “follow the breath”. ... I expect I will tell him to let the place where his attention goes do the sitting, and maybe even the breathing. (Just to Sit) Action, solely by virtue of the location of consciousness--look, Ma, no hands! Or in England:

To sum up, the “samādhi” of the Suttas (EBT’s) is about concentrating the mind itself, while the “samādhi” of the Visuddhimagga is about concentrating on an object. (Bhikkyu Kumara, What You Might Not Know About Jhana and Samadhi, p 35) Bhikkyu Kumara saw the different views of immersive concentration as rooted in two different interpretations of a particular Pali word: For a long time in Theravāda Buddhism, ekaggatā has been commonly translated as “one pointedness”. … “One-pointedness” has gained such wide acceptance as the translation for ekaggatā that most people don’t question it. So, people who assume it means “fixing of close, undivided attention on a spatially limited location”, and believe it’s necessary, will try to practice that. (ibid, p 42) The Pāli word has three parts: eka (one), agga, and tā (-ness). So clearly this common translation takes agga to mean “pointed”. … Actually, “agga” has another meaning, as a contracted form of “agāra”. … it’s literally “empty place”, with agāra being simply “place”. Could this other meaning of agga, i.e. “place”, be the actual meaning in “ekaggatā”? Let’s join the parts: ekaggatā = eka (one) + agga (place) + tā (ness) = “one-place-ness” or “oneplacedness” (modelling after “one-pointedness”). (ibid, pp 42, 45) From something I hope to post soon to my site: In my experience, “one-pointedness” or “oneplacedness” is a description of consciousness, when consciousness is retained with the location of self. The location of self has become a subject of study in neurobiology: A key aspect of the bodily self is self-location, the experience that the self is localized at a specific position in space within one’s bodily borders (embodied self-location). (Journal of Neuroscience 26 May 2010, 30 (21) 7202-7214) When consciousness is retained with the location of self, the “specific position in space” of consciousness has place, yet that place is apart from the contents of the body—that place is empty, or “agga”. Just so happens that when "self-surrender" is made the object of thought, as in the induction of the first concentration, the necessity of breath tends to place consciousness with the specific position in space of self-location--at least, that's my experience.

And what… is the (noble) right concentration with the causal associations, with the accompaniments? It is right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right mode of livelihood, right endeavor, right mindfulness. Whatever one-pointedness of mind is accompanied by these seven components , this… is called the (noble) right concentration with the causal associations and the accompaniments. (MN 117, tr. Pali Text Society vol III p 114; “noble” substituted for Ariyan; emphasis added) Bhikkyu Thanissaro references the above passage in his introduction to How Pointy is One-Pointedness?: A Pali sutta, MN 44, defines concentration as cittass’ek’aggatā, which is often translated as “one-pointedness of mind”: cittassa = “of the mind” or “of the heart,” eka = one, agga = point, -tā = -ness. MN 117 defines noble right concentration as any one-pointedness of mind supported by the first seven factors of the noble path, from right view through right mindfulness. MN 43 states further that one-pointedness is a factor of the first jhāna, the beginning level of right concentration. Thanissaro concludes the "one-pointedness of mind" means focus on a single object, and he recommends doubling-down on that. Here's Gautama's definition of "wrong view": There is no (result of) gift … no (result of) offering … no (result of) sacrifice; there is no fruit or ripening of deeds well done or ill done; there is not this world, there is not a world beyond; there is no (benefit from serving) mother and father; there are no beings of spontaneous uprising; there are not in the world recluses and brahmans… who are faring rightly, proceeding rightly, and who proclaim this world and the world beyond having realized them by their own super-knowledge. (MN 117, tr. Pali Text Society vol III pp 113-121) "Beings of spontaneous uprising" appears to be a reference to fairy-like beings that spring into existence without parents. According to the notes on the Pali Text Society translation of SN (vol III p 197), such beings were common in Vedic folklore. His definition of mundane right view was the view that is the opposite of wrong view, but he qualified that by saying that such "right view" is the right view that "has cankers, that is on the side of merit, that ripens unto cleaving (to new birth)". The right view which is “[noble], supermundane, cankerless and a component of the way” was: Whatever … is wisdom, the cardinal faculty of wisdom, the power of wisdom, the component of enlightenment which is investigation into things, the right view that is a component of the Way in one who, by developing the [noble] Way, is of [noble] thought, conversant with the [noble] Way–this… is a right view that is [noble], cankerless, supermundane, a component of the Way. (Ibid) Here's "right effort": As to this… right view comes first. And how… does right view come first? If one comprehends that wrong purpose is wrong purpose and comprehends that right purpose is right purpose, that is… right view. And what… is wrong purpose? Purpose for sense-pleasures, purpose for ill-will, purpose for harming. This… is wrong purpose. And what… is right purpose? Now I… say that right purpose is twofold. There is… the right purpose that has cankers, is on the side of merit, and ripens unto cleaving (to new birth). There is… the right purpose which is [noble], cankerless, supermundane, a factor of the Way. And what… is the purpose which is on the side of merit, and ripens unto cleaving? Purpose for renunciation, purpose for non-ill-will, purpose for non-harming. This… is right purpose that… ripens unto cleaving. And what… is the right purpose that is [noble], cankerless, supermundane, a component of the Way? Whatever… is reasoning, initial thought, purpose, an activity of speech through the complete focussing and application of the mind in one who, by developing the [noble] Way, is of [noble] thought, of cankerless thought, and is conversant with the [noble] Way–this… is right purpose that is [noble], cankerless, supermundane, a component of the Way. (ibid; "noble" substituted for "Ariyan") The fundamental method for attaining the jhanas, according to Gautama, is "lack of desire". Here's his description of the induction of the first concentration: Herein… the (noble) disciple, making self-surrender the object of (their) thought, lays hold of concentration, lays hold of one-pointedness. (The disciple), aloof from sensuality, aloof from evil conditions, enters on the first trance, which is accompanied by thought initial and sustained, which is born of solitude, easeful and zestful, and abides therein. (SN 48.10, © Pali Text Society vol V p 174; parentheticals para­phrase original; Horner’s “initial” (MN 119) substituted for Woodward’s “di­rected”; emphasis added) Did I mention my take? In my experience, “one-pointedness” occurs when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention at a singular location in the body, and a person “lays hold of one-pointedness” when they remain awake as the singular location shifts. (Just to Sit) Cowboy Buddhist...

踵蒂吸呼--Google translates this as "heel-to-toe breathing". Looks like the passage I quoted was authored by one Fabrizio Pregadio. A website titled "International Consortium for the Humanities" offers his credentials: Fabrizio Pregadio has taught at the University of Venice (1996-97), the Technical University of Berlin (1998-2001), Stanford University (2001-08), and McGill University in Montreal (2009-10). His work deals with the self-cultivation traditions of Taoism, their doctrinal foundations in early Taoist works, and their relation to Chinese traditional sciences, including cosmology and medicine. He is the author of Great Clarity: Daoism and Alchemy in Early Medieval China (Stanford University Press, 2006) and the editor of The Encyclopedia of Taoism (Routledge, 2008). His translations of Taoist texts include the Wuzhen pian (Awakening to Reality, 2009) and the Cantong qi (The Seal of the Unity of the Three, 2011), both published by Golden Elixir Press. I'm guessing he's a good man to go to for an explanation based on the historical literature of the Daoist tradition. Can you place "heel-to-toe breathing" in the historical literature of the Daoist tradition regarding Neidan ("internal cultivation", literally "internal elixir")--I've heard of breathing to the heels or to the "bubbling spring" in Tai Chi, but not heel-to-toe breathing in Neidan.

at the bar last night, fire horse on a sign: The bartend-ress brooked no sh*t, and the band played on!