Mark Foote

a bit of tongue fu Bruce Lee's got nothing on this tonsils in a knot

I would take issue with this, from the above article: "In the oldest narratives of the life of the historical Buddha in Ancient India, such as are found in the Vinaya, there are many accounts of the Buddha manifesting miraculous and magical powers." The first four sermon collections in the Pali Canon I believe are considered to the most accurate representation of the historical teachings of Gautama the Shakyan. There we find: "It is because I perceive danger in the practice of mystic wonders, that I loathe, and abhor, and am ashamed thereof." (Digha Nikaya XI Kevaddha Sutta, Pali Text Society DN Vol I pg 278; online here: https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.11.0.than.html) I believe Gautama said that the only miraculous power he exercised was the power to teach the dharma. The author of this article says that's so and it's in the Kevaddha Sutta, but I can't find it right now: https://digitalcommons.linfield.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1000&context=relsfac_pubs Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure that in those first four books, there's an instance where Gautama asks Mogallana to stir things up a bit for the monks. Mogallana obliges by using his big toe to create an earthquake.

I'll have some tea, thanks --What's in this tea, jack rabbits?! rancid yak butter?

That's a good question, about why the teachings weren't written down during Gautama's time, or at least during the First Council when the texts of the first four sermon collections were established. I know that the custom was to pass teachings down orally. I believe one of the early requirements for becoming a member of the order was the memorization of at least one of the volumes of one of the collections. Also, there were members of the order who had that photographic memory for sound, like Gautama's companion Ananda. My understanding is that in Sri Lanka, where the teaching was taken by one of King Asoka's sons who had become a monk, there came a time when there appeared to be a danger of some of the volumes being lost. The decision was made to commit them to writing. That would have been around the start of the common era, so 0 C.E.. How strange it must have been, to be a monk and realize that the teaching was now available to everyone, without the need for monks. Sort of like the first bible printed in the vernacular, and the consequent lack of any need for an intermediary to know "the word of God". The first four collections in the Pali Suttas are considered to be the most historically accurate account of Gautama's teaching. I've read the Pali Text Society's editions, and I recommend them--the Pali Text Society finished translating the middle-length collection, the last of the collections in their translations, in 1957. I think theirs was the first complete translation of that collection. I think it would have been very difficult for anyone to have obtained an overview of Gautama's teaching in the days of the oral tradition, and difficult for anyone to have obtained such an overview after the teachings were written down unless they had all the volumes at hand to refer to and the time to study them. Not that the teaching itself is that difficult to summarize, but the key bits are scattered around in the collections, and I think they won't make a lot of sense without all of them together and a steady practice of seated meditation. It's no wonder that many of the "sermons" of later composition attributed to Gautama were dedicated to approaches other than the study of scriptures, or that the study of scriptures should come to be viewed as inferior to other methods in many traditions. It's a jungle, in those scriptures! Nevertheless, there is no other voice in the literature of the world like Gautama's (IMHO). p.s. Mahaparinibbanasutta apparently may have some later insertions, but for the most part it's Gautama, and it's a part of the Digha Nikaya Pali Sutta volumes.

lighting summer nights over the heartland rivers are you gone for good? Are you gone for good Maybe I'll plant some milkweed pray for forgiveness

Just then, the phone rang... I have no doubt that a great deal can be transmitted without words. Everybody in the dojo of my first judo teacher learned how to do the sweep, because that was my first judo teacher's throw. He definitely taught it, along with all the other throws, but the fact that all of us learned it well enough to perform it in competition and students from other dojos did not, I think says something about the importance of what is transmitted outside of words. But here's a story, from the sermon of the "Great Decease" (Maha-Parinibbana). When Gautama died, Maha Kasyapa and a large group of monks were on the road some distance away. Maha Kasyapa encountered an ascetic holding a Mandarava flower, which had bloomed and fallen out of season--the ascetic related to Maha Kasyapa that the Gautamid had died, and the trees that bore the flower had all bloomed out of season. Maha Kasyapa proceeded to the town where Gautama's body was laid out on a pyre. The townspeople had been unable to get the pyre to light, but after Maha Kasyapa circumabulated the pyre a few times and collected the Gautamid's bowl and robe, they were able to light the pyre. And there you have it. Silent transmission on the occasion of Gautama's display of a flower, just like in the Zen case (but not quite). How you learn things like making rain, bounding in giant steps through the snow, answering the phone before it rings--for some of these things, I think the physical presence of the teacher is probably necessary (and the individual must have miraculous talent to begin with).

You're right about that, Apech. I suppose ritual magic has always been tied to a notion of cause and effect, the manipulation of objects and the sacrifice of worldly goods or lives in order to produce a particular worldly reward. And the preservation of the civic and caste structure of the institution in power, through the inculcation of superstitious belief in the necessity of the performance of the ritual by a particular class of individual. But putting politics in America aside for the moment... ha ha. The notion of "making self-surrender the object of thought", and of states in which "determinate thought" in action of speech, body, and mind ceases, that I think is original in the teaching of the Gautamid. That such states would also be conducive to the performance of supernatural feats and healings, I have no doubt, and yet the channeling of spirits and special abilities seems to have been a talent beyond most monks/nuns, even those like Sariputta who were acknowledged to have mastered the discipline. It's amazing what normal lives some of the native healers have lived, while practicing miracles when called upon. Faith is a part of what they do, and initiation plays heavily in the transmission of some skills, but only gifted individuals actually succeed in receiving the transmission of healing arts and perhaps some abilities. Some Buddhist traditions lean heavily on transmission in the teaching, as well, but Gautama did not, so far as I can tell from the first four Nikayas. It's a peculiar mix, the traditions that claim to be Buddhist!

o firefly master, you who reigned over rivers, lighting summer nights

Yeah, but no--I've read the four principle NIkayas. The original teaching was about action (karmic action, action with circular consequence), and how such action ceases in the meditative states (first with regard to speech, then the body, and finally with regard to the mind). If I want to find my way back to spontaneous action, I could do worse than to distinguish inhalation from exhalation. Talismans, rituals, and the invocation of gods was prohibited, the handling of money was prohibited. Ok, that's different from talismans, prosperity rituals, and incantations for summoning gods and spirits, IMHO. Now we are talking about individuals who are able to channel their own psychic powers for the good of the community, not people looking to profit themselves or their temple from the exercise of such abilities. Recently finished a book about a Pomo healer who grew up near where I am living now: "Mabel McKay", by Greg Sarris. She talks about speaking to a healer who came to her as a hummingbird (and said he would be with her as soon as they released him from jail). I believe this really happened. Mabel was a talented healer. I believe that the world of spirits that she could channel was real, but I don't believe it's connected with the original teachings of Gautama the Shakyan. Guys in Tibet that could bound through the snow with enormous steps are reported in "Magic and Mystery in Tibet" (Alexandra David-Neel), and no doubt they were Buddhist, but that doesn't mean their ability was Buddhist magic. Religious faith of any kind probably helps the healer to heal the sick, but faith is not the core of what's in those first four Nikayas, to me. I'm in awe of first people's healers, but why cite the popular desire to influence things apart from the karma of action, as Buddhist?

Must set my soul straight Look here, soul: I have no choice I follow my heart

Sounds like I am, right? Jumping in the icy stream? Goose bumps with goose bumps

I have a short study of the teachings in the Pali sermon volumes, that I hope might be of interest. I wrote the study to teach myself something about the initial states of concentration (the rupa jhanas), and I think I succeeded, even though in practice I focus on "lack of desire" more than the induction of any particular state. Here's the introduction, the first few paragraphs, plus the link.

Without an abode No place to lay his/her head February sun

The topic has been moved.

I just finished a piece that is a summary of the teachings in the Pali sermons. Here's something of what it's about: ... the early record of Gautama’s teaching is still there, in Southeast Asia, in Tibet, and in China.... In that early record, Gautama is concerned with action, a certain kind of action: …I say that determinate thought is action. When one determines, one acts by deed, word, or thought. “When one determines”–when one makes up one’s mind, action takes place. Gautama 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’.” Gautama taught that action ceases first with regard to speech, then with regard to the body, and finally with regard to the mind. The Early Record I lay out what he taught, about how the cessation of volitive action (action through determinate thought) comes about. Not exactly what people think of as meditation, not what people think about as mindfulness either.

No thinking needed Just let the mind be present without an abode

I would agree, it's a large and interesting topic. I'd also agree with your analysis of what constitutes trance, versus what constitutes meditation. Gautama's "cessation of (determinate thought) in perception and sensation" seems like a pretty subtle state. I have enough trouble finding something like happiness when I sit, that I don't think about that cessation much, but maybe I should. Seems like it's all of a piece, no matter how you cut it. You could say that the science of Gautama's teaching is in the truths of suffering, and from the sound of his post the OP was hoping for a discussion more along those lines. Ok, here's my favorite rendition of the chain of causation (part of the four truths): 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 “Kindred Sayings on Cause” XII, 4, chapter 38 “Will”, Pali Text Society SN II pg 45) Gautama also said that "birth, decay-and-death, grief, lamenting, suffering, sorrow and despair" was "in short, the five groups of grasping" (grasping after self in form, feeling, mind, habitual tendency, or mental state)(AN I 176, Pali Text Society Vol I pg 160). Determinate thought is precisely the will, the intention to do, or the preoccupation with something that leads to an object for the persistance of consciousness, and a stationing of consciousness, hence the importance of the cessation of determinate thought in action. Koun Franz talked about the mind moving away from the head (“No Struggle [Zazen Yojinki, Part 6]”, by Koun Franz, from the “Nyoho Zen” sitehttps://nyoho.com/2018/09/15/no-struggle-zazen-yojinki-part-6/). Maybe he was talking about how consciousness comes unstationed--I'd like to think so.

Swayed by the moonlight He stepped onto the water So much for moonlight

There are a lot of different prescriptions for meditation. I personally would say that the real record of civilization is in the meditation manuals. Those have been written by Buddhist and Daoist practitioners for millenia, and probably Bon practitioners too (though I'm not so familiar with the Tibetan heritage). The crossroads between mind and body that these manuals address is still a difficult topic, today. In "The Early Record", I make the case (based on the Pali sermons) that the whole of Gautama's teaching centers around the cessation of "determinate thought" in action. He left a detailed description of how that cessation comes about, through successive states of concentration. At the same time, he advised a lack of desire for the states of concentration, stating that "whatever a person thinks (a state of concentration) is, it is otherwise." Are these states of concentration "meditations", or "trances"? I think if we consider the trances that are used by native healers around the world, Gautama's concentrations would have to be considered tame by comparison. He did leave instructions for the attainment of pyschic powers such as the six miracles, but the only miracle he claimed for himself was the ability to teach the dharma. I know some of the Pomo medicine people in my area saw and did amazing things, and they practiced purifications and prayers to put themselves in the state of mind to do these things. That seems more like trance to me. How do you see it?

Treacherous indeed Wheeled board, the icy sidewalk The folly of youth

I loved "Magic and Mystery in Tibet"! I would agree that Buddhism is a science, and that the lab portion of the course is on the meditation cushion. Gautama did talk about 6 miracles, things like stroking the sun and moon with the hand, diving into solid earth as though it was water, walking through walls, floating on air. Walking through walls, I have a friend who described meeting three men when he was on datura, and when they left, they walked out through the wall. But, I digress! The notion of reincarnation (or not) is definitely there in the teachings, but the practice was about the cessation of volitive action (IMHO). I just finished a short overview of the teachings in general, and of the rupa jhanas in particular--it's here, if you're interested: The Early Record What could be more Shamanistic than trance, and who understood how that was connected with well-being more than the Gautamid!

One taste, hot and cold Waking up, falling asleep This thing needs handrails!

The Early Record

Seasons come and go Sitting on top of the world I lose track of time