Mark Foote

Doesn't mean you are free to act, apart from the stream (so to speak).

rest in great peace not holding still, no fixed sign; creek and mountainside

Intention (or habitual activity, conscious or unconscious) is an interesting topic. You could say Gautama taught the cessation of intention, first in speech, then in the body (in inhalation and exhalation), and then in the mind (in perception and sensation). Intention has consequence, good or bad, and either way Gautama saw it as ill. How do you let go of intention? Everybody does it all the time, but how can one accord one's life with the relinquishment of the sense of self and the experience of action in the absence of volition? Zazen sits zazen, as Shunryu Suzuki said (to Blanche Hartman), and sometimes zazen gets up and walks around, as Kobun Otogawa said (at S.F. Zen Center, in the 80's). Where do we find the necessity that lets these things happen? Gautama got down to eating little shit-balls every couple of weeks, and he still didn't find his--he nearly drowned, almost lacking the strength to grab a tree branch and pull himself out, but after that he recalled sitting under a tree as his father plowed the fields (was his father really a king, ya gotta wonder, based on what he said), and he realized that might be a way. He regained his strength, and sat for years. When he finally found his necessity and set out to reconnect with the five ascetics he originally practiced with, he announced to a wandering ascetic on the road that he had found the highest truth, and the ascetic said "good luck" and walked on (love that story). Some history (I hope I'm getting it right). King Asoka, whose flag is still the flag of present day India, sent his son along with the necessary quorum of monks to induct others into the order (I think it was 5 monks) to Sri Lanka, in the third century B.C.. At that time it was required that a novice memorize at least one of the "books" of the Canon, in order to be a monk, as the teaching was passed down orally. There were among the order of monks some with "photographic" memories for sound, apparently, beginning with Gautama's attendant Ananda (my understanding is that the sermons that began with "Thus have I heard" were recited by Ananda, when the sermon volumes were composed after Gautama's death, and there are many such sermons). Nevertheless, by approximately the start of the common era (0 C.E.), the monks in Sri Lanka realized they were in danger of losing some of the "books" of the Canon--a decision was made to put them in writing. They were written down in the language in which they arrived in Sri Lanka, which was not the language Gautama actually spoke, but the Pali language. From Sri Lanka, the Order and the written books went to Myanmar, and then to Thailand. In Thailand, the son of the king featured in "Anna and the King", or "The King and I", gifted a set of the Pali Canon texts to Rhys-Davids, a British civil servant in Sri Lanka, who founded the Pali Text Society to translate the texts. The last of the sermon volumes (third volume of the Middle-Length Sayings, or Majjhima Nikaya) was translated and published in English by the Society in 1957. I obtained a copy of the first four Nikayas from England in the 1980's, when I had the money. Most of the sermons seem boring to me, but every so often there's one that is like a piece of code, consistent across the volumes, unlike anything else in the literature of the world. The Chan teacher Yuanwu (and Dogen's teacher Rujing) appear to have been aware of at least some of the contents of the Pali Sermon volumes, but Dogen does not--the sermons were not among the texts he copied and brought back to Japan from the year he was in China. Dogen is consequently very original in some of his teachings, although having read Bielefeldt's "Dogen's Meditation Manuals", it appears he did cop a lot of what he wrote from the Chinese texts he did copy. Apart from Gautama and the Pali Canon, the first meditation manuals, or actual written instructions with regard to seated meditation, didn't appear until about 1100 A.D. in China (if I understand correctly). So yes, there was a long history without specific written instructions in China (other than the Canon, which had apparently been brought to China by around 600 A.D.), but by the time Dogen returned to Japan, it was one of the first things he attempted to compose. Ok, rereading that last paragraph, I ignored the texts that were written centuries after Gautama's death, many of which were attributed to a return of the Buddha from some other-worldly place to provide the teachings that people weren't ready for in his original lifetime. I guess you'd have to say texts about enlightenment were being written sporadically after Gautama's death the whole time, but they mostly didn't specifically address seated meditation, which Gautama did address.

Phoenix3, I can tell you some things I disagree with Gautama about, and maybe I can talk a little about the differences between the two. There is a sermon in one of the first four Nikayas where Gautama talks of how a woman will attempt to ensnare a man, even on her deathbed. I think "ensnare" was the translation I saw--if not it was something similar. So he was, at least at one point in time, a misogynist (nice twentieth-century word). His cousin and attendant Ananda had to appeal three times before, by his silence, Gautama gave consent for an order of nuns. The reasoning Gautama gave was that women are weaker, and the order would be constantly under attack like a person on a highway of thieves, so that by admitting women the order would only last 500 years instead of a thousand. More evidence of his prejudice, IMO. In general, Gautama's notion that his enlightenment extended to understanding the correct social order and morality seems flawed to me. In another sermon Gautama listed six miracles, as a comprehensive list. One of them was "stroking the sun and moon with the hand". This compares with floating through the air, passing through solid earth, and the like. I don't know about floating through the air and passing through solid materials, but I think we can say for sure that stroking the sun and moon with the hand can only be a kind of lucid dreaming experience. Ok, maybe this is trivial, but there you have it. What I like about Gautama's teaching in the first four Nikayas (the ones considered most likely to be historically accurate, with the fewest non-historical added lines) is that he's specific and appeals to his listener to verify everything he says for themselves. So, he teaches four truths about suffering, he teaches the setting up of mindfulness and the material meditative states, and he teaches the immaterial meditative states. He does refer to the "infinity of ether", the "infinity of consciousness", and "the state of no-thing", but he describes these as the result of the extension of the mind of compassion, of sympathetic joy, and of equanimity throughout the four quarters of the world, above, and below, so he gives a practice that has some finite sense to it. If you'd like to read a summary of what Gautama taught, I put my notes together here. Daoism emphasizes an encompassing and completed infinity, the Dao. I believe that the proofs of Godel in the 1930's established that treating infinity as a completed entity leads to contradictions, and in many ways I believe Gautama avoided that treatment (and the resultant contradictions) while Daoism embraced it. Still, I'm very fond of Tai Chi, and the other internal martial arts of China. I think I've learned more about how to approach seated meditation through the writings of Cheng Man-Ching than through most of Dogen's teachings! As to what Gautama taught about the self, I believe it was mostly that the identification of self with the material, with feelings, with the mind, with habitual activity, or with mental states was suffering. "This is not mine, this is not myself" is what he would repeat, and more powerfully "mine is not the doer with respect to this consciousness-informed body", but that is an experience that anyone can have for themselves if they can relax through the suffocation response.

Sleeping in the sun the train sits, the tracks approach blossom tree and fruit

To make us happy requires just simple healing the horse, not the cart

Spinning on the spot Never moving a muscle Contact, ignition

Like to thank Wells, Zafrogzen, CT and Gunther. On Bodhidharma's one sandal left behind, I do believe that was the only way for someone to see an individual with only one sandal proceeding out of China, and for the rest of us to know by that individual's report that Bodhidharma did not die at Shaolin Temple. I sympathize with you, Wells, on your dissatisfaction with the material and your desire to escape suffering, perhaps for the benefit of all beings. For me, the science is Gautama's. The way I understand it, the four truths are only relevant when suffering exists. Lots of folks interpret the four truths to mean all of life is suffering, but I believe it is the recognition, "suffering exists", that keys the second, third, and fourth truths. Second truth, the origin of suffering is in ignorance, and from ignorance habitual action or volitive action, and from such action consciousness and the chain of dependencies down to grasping after self in the five groups. Third truth, with the cessation of ignorance is the cessation of the whole chain, including grasping after self in the five groups. Fourth truth, not going to help me much in its original statement, but this does: (Anyone)…knowing and seeing eye as it really is, knowing and seeing material shapes… visual consciousness… impact on the eye as it really is, and knowing, seeing as it really is the experience, whether pleasant, painful, or neither painful nor pleasant, that arises conditioned by impact on the eye, is not attached to the eye nor to material shapes nor to visual consciousness nor to impact on the eye; and that experience, whether pleasant, painful, or neither painful nor pleasant, that arises conditioned by impact on the eye—neither to that is (such a one) attached. …(Such a one’s) physical anxieties decrease, and mental anxieties decrease, and bodily torments… and mental torments… and bodily fevers decrease, and mental fevers decrease. (Such a one) experiences happiness of body and happiness of mind. (repeated for ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind). Whatever is the view of what really is, that for (such a one) is right view; whatever is aspiration for what really is, that for (such a one) is right aspiration; whatever is endeavour for what really is, that is for (such a one) right endeavour; whatever is mindfulness of what really is, that is for (such a one) right mindfulness; whatever is concentration on what really is, that is for (such a one) right concentration. And (such a one’s) past acts of body, acts of speech, and mode of livelihood have been well purified. (Majjhima-Nikaya, Pali Text Society volume 3 pg 337-338, ©Pali Text Society) No, I don't much experience sense object, sense organ, consciousness, impact, and feeling the way Gautama described it, but I do take something from what he said about the nature of the path. Gunther quoted " An ordinary mind is a mind of non-abiding awareness". My ability to sit has improved since I discovered that this is not a dualism, the reference is not to awareness and its object, but simply to the location of awareness. The eyes play tricks, resetting the location of awareness with the thinking mind, but as Ayres asserted the coordinating sense is equalibrioception (the vestibulars). As far as sitting cross-legged, I return now to something like this, as a necessity of breath at about 30 minutes: Awareness of the forward and backward motion wherever consciousness takes place and relaxation of the activity of the body in awareness stretches the ligaments and fascia of the ilio-sacral joints, between the sacrum and the pelvis. Similarly, awareness of the side-to-side motion wherever consciousness takes place and relaxation of the activity of the body in awareness stretches the ligaments and fascia between the sacrum and the sit-bones on either side. Likewise, awareness of the turn left, turn right wherever consciousness takes place and relaxation of the activity of the body in awareness stretches the ligaments and fascia between the sacrum and the lower front sides of the pelvis, left and right. The stretches initiate activity in the muscle groups of the legs, activity that returns to the pelvis to initiate stretch and activity in support of the spine and the skull. It's all I can do to just breath, at about 35, but it makes me happy. "To unfurl the red flag of victory over your head, whirl the twin swords behind your ears—if not for a discriminating eye and a familiar hand, how could anyone be able to succeed?" (emphasis mine; from "The Blue Cliff Record", translation by T. and J.C. Cleary, case 37 pg 274)

I was hoping you could tell me why this teaching resonates with you, preferably with some kind of example drawn from your life. Granted, the teachings are many and various, yet I think it's important to acknowledge some propensity for followers of faith to create texts and teachings that confuse myth with science, as the years pass. Gautama said to take nothing on faith, in his final days, and I believe in that approach. At the same time, I'm aware that there's a great deal that cannot readily be explained on the basis of science, and I delight in stories like those I am reading now of Native Americans who seemed privy to advice and counsel from another world. The stories I am reading are very straight-forward, mostly about healers, and the prophecies they received and the illnesses they cured. Maybe these Tibetan teachings are along those lines. I certainly enjoyed Alexandra David-Neel's account of magic and mystery in Tibet, and there's clearly a long, non-Buddhist history of spiritual practices in Tibet, as well as a Buddhist history. I'm just looking to avoid discussing angels dancing on the heads of pins, when the OP asked for help with sitting cross-legged.

Do you have a personal experience of these things you can relate?

The rice fly of zazen samadhi (Lake County, California): The Pomos around the lake certainly had their dreamers--I guess most First Nations peoples did. Gautama did not perform miracles (although he said that the greatest miracle of all was to teach). Wonder if that's why some Tibetans say he never achieved the "rainbow (dream) body"?

(It's in bold) thezensite Actualizing the Fundamental Point (Genjo-koan) Translated by Robert Aitken and Kazuaki Tanahashi Revised at San Francisco Zen Center As all things are buddha-dharma, there is delusion and realization, practice, and birth and death, and there are buddhas and sentient beings. As the myriad things are without an abiding self, there is no delusion, no realization, no buddha, no sentient being, no birth and death. The buddha way is, basically, leaping clear of the many of the one; thus there are birth and death, delusion and realization, sentient beings and buddhas. Yet in attachment blossoms fall, and in aversion weeds spread. To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening. Those who have great realization of delusion are buddhas; those who are greatly deluded about realization are sentient beings. Further, there are those who continue realizing beyond realization, who are in delusion throughout delusion. When buddhas are truly buddhas they do not necessarily notice that they are buddhas. However, they are actualized buddhas, who go on actualizing buddhas. When you see forms or hear sounds fully engaging body-and-mind, you grasp things directly. Unlike things and their reflections in the mirror, and unlike the moon and its reflection in the water, when one side is illumined the other side is dark. To study the buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of realization remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly. When you first seek dharma, you imagine you are far away from its environs. But dharma is already correctly transmitted; you are immediately your original self. When you ride in a boat and watch the shore, you might assume that the shore is moving. But when you keep your eyes closely on the boat, you can see that the boat moves. Similarly, if you examine myriad things with a confused body and mind you might suppose that your mind and nature are permanent. When you practice intimately and return to where you are, it will be clear that nothing at all has unchanging self. Firewood becomes ash, and it does not become firewood again. Yet, do not suppose that the ash is future and the firewood past. You should understand that firewood abides in the phenomenal expression of firewood, which fully includes past and future and is independent of past and future. Ash abides in the phenomenal expression of ash, which fully includes future and past. Just as firewood does not become firewood again after it is ash, you do not return to birth after death. This being so, it is an established way in buddha-dharma to deny that birth turns into death. Accordingly, birth is understood as no-birth. It is an unshakable teaching in Buddha's discourse that death does not turn into birth. Accordingly, death is understood as no-death. Birth is an expression complete this moment. Death is an expression complete this moment. They are like winter and spring. You do not call winter the beginning of spring, nor summer the end of spring. Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass, or even in one drop of water. Enlightenment does not divide you, just as the moon does not break the water. You cannot hinder enlightenment, just as a drop of water does not hinder the moon in the sky. The depth of the drop is the height of the moon. Each reflection, however long of short its duration, manifests the vastness of the dewdrop, and realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky. When dharma does not fill your whole body and mind, you think it is already sufficient. When dharma fills your body and mind, you understand that something is missing. For example, when you sail out in a boat to the middle of an ocean where no land is in sight, and view the four directions, the ocean looks circular, and does not look any other way. But the ocean is neither round or square; its features are infinite in variety. It is like a palace. It is like a jewel. It only look circular as far as you can see at that time. All things are like this. Though there are many features in the dusty world and the world beyond conditions, you see and understand only what your eye of practice can reach. In order to learn the nature of the myriad things, you must know that although they may look round or square, the other features of oceans and mountains are infinite in variety; whole worlds are there. It is so not only around you, but also directly beneath your feet, or in a drop of water. A fish swims in the ocean, and no matter how far it swims there is no end to the water. A bird flies in the sky, and no matter how far it flies there is no end to the air. However, the fish and the bird have never left their elements. When their activity is large their field is large. When their need is small their field is small. Thus, each of them totally covers its full range, and each of them totally experiences its realm. If the bird leaves the air it will die at once. If the fish leaves the water it will die at once. Know that water is life and air is life. The bird is life and the fish is life. Life must be the bird and life must be the fish. It is possible to illustrate this with more analogies. Practice, enlightenment, and people are like this. Now if a bird or a fish tries to reach the end of its element before moving in it, this bird or this fish will not find its way or its place. When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. When you find you way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point; for the place, the way, is neither large nor small, neither yours nor others'. The place, the way, has not carried over from the past and it is not merely arising now. Accordingly, in the practice-enlightenment of the buddha way, meeting one thing is mastering it--doing one practice is practicing completely. Here is the place; here the way unfolds. The boundary of realization is not distinct, for the realization comes forth simultaneously with the mastery of buddha-dharma. Do not suppose that what you realize becomes your knowledge and is grasped by your consciousness. Although actualized immediately, the inconceivable may not be apparent. Its appearance is beyond your knowledge. Zen master Baoche of Mt. Mayu was fanning himself. A monk approached and said, "Master, the nature of wind is permanent and there is no place it does not reach. When, then, do you fan yourself?" "Although you understand that the nature of the wind is permanent," Baoche replied, "you do not understand the meaning of its reaching everywhere." "What is the meaning of its reaching everywhere?" asked the monk again. The master just kept fanning himself. The monk bowed deeply. The actualization of the buddha-dharma, the vital path of its correct transmission, is like this. If you say that you do not need to fan yourself because the nature of wind is permanent and you can have wind without fanning, you will understand neither permanence nor the nature of wind. The nature of wind is permanent; because of that, the wind of the buddha's house brings for the gold of the earth and makes fragrant the cream of the long river. Written in mid-autumn, the first year of Tempuku 1233, and given to my lay student Koshu Yo of Kyushu Island. {Revised in} the fourth year of Kencho {I252}.

"Ordinary mind". Is this the same as, "when you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point"? Here's Bodhidharma: "Outwardly cease all involvements, inwardly have no coughing or sighing in the mind--with your mind like a wall you can enter the way." (Denkoroku "Transmission of Light", trans. Cleary, Huike/Shenguang #30) I think he's speaking to "one-pointedness" of mind, where "the activity in the Vestibular system provides a framework for the other aspects of our experiences" (Ayres). Falling upright from the location of my awareness, which shifts and moves with the sense contact precipitated by the necessity for breath (sense contact precipitated by the necessity for breath--"when you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point"). Pretty tight connection for Bodhidharma between the movement of breath and the "ordinary mind".

It's an Irish jig a feeling of moonlight, sure upright like a top

A thing that I have learned to do, out of necessity, is to look for the positive and substantive in the teaching. Gautama taught this way, and Yuanwu (the author of "The Blue Cliff Record"). When I try to write in a positive and substantive manner, I am forced to recognize when I am saying something that is intended for someone else, and when I am saying something that is in some way new and consequential to me. There are moments in Dogen's teaching where he says something positive and substantive, although his comments on the Chinese legacy are often mostly negations. Looking for the positive and substantive in "Genjo Koan", for example, I came up with this: "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…" There's a third line that goes with the first two, and here Dogen reverts to a negative, but I forgive him! Although actualized immediately, the inconceivable may not be apparent. As far as I know, there's only one way to make positive and substantive statements that speak to the other side of the universe--we all have to have at least one hand on, and let it move like Baoche's fan: How's that?

In Bielefeldt's "Dogen's Manuals of Zen Meditation", he translates the "Lancet of Seated Meditation" (Kannon Dori Kosho Horin Ji), which includes the dialogue between Ta-chi and Nan-yueh about polishing a tile. Here's part of that dialogue: Ta-chi said, "How can you produce a mirror by polishing a tile?" Nan-yueh replied, "How can you make a Buddha by sitting in meditation?" Ta-chi asked, "Then, what is right?" Nan-yueh answered, "When a man is driving a cart, if the cart doesn't go, should he beat the cart or beat the ox?" ("Dogen's Manuals of Zen Meditation", Carl Bielefeldt, pg 195-195, UC Press ed. 1988) There's a moment in my sitting where only equanimity with respect to the senses preserves ease in the stretch of breath, where only equanimity with respect to the senses allows happiness in the freedom of breath.

Well I'm so glad you asked! The equanimity referred to is equanimity with respect to the multiplicity of the senses. So the cessation of happiness apart from equanimity means there's only happiness while there is equanimity with respect to the multiplicity of the senses, no happiness apart from that. In my experience, there's usually a moment in zazen where equanimity with respect to the senses becomes necessary to the movement of breath, meaning although the mind is not excluded, other senses may be more crucial at the moment. In his article on the vestibular organs, which I linked on a prior page, David Brown offers this: Jean Ayres, an occupational therapist and the creator of Sensory Integration Theory and Therapy, is more concise and states simply that: “The Vestibular system is the unifying system. All other types of sensation are processed in reference to this basic Vestibular information. The activity in the Vestibular system provides a framework for the other aspects of our experiences.” I would agree with Ayres, and I would agree because that's my experience in the moment where the inclusion of any and all of the senses becomes necessary in order to breath (it's "where am I", writ large--along with what do I feel, what has weight). The exercise of relaxation always seems to be a part of the "the cessation of ease apart from equanimity". Meanwhile, "the cessation of happiness apart from equanimity" for me involves jumping through the suffocation response to experience a freedom of breath to move and of the body to respond (instead of the other way 'round).

I wrote a post I titled "The Job" on my blog not long ago, in which I said this: "My posture is not good, Zen teachers can barely keep their hands off me, when I go to sesshin (sounds like the same is true for American Zen priests who go to Japan, even if they have good posture).The job here in the West, as far as I'm concerned, is to understand the causality, physical and mental, behind the action of the posture and the mind, accept it and let it play out. If I sit up straight some of the time, it's not because I'm trying to sit up straight." (From here--the bit about American Zen priests who go to Japan is a reference to Jiryu Mark Rutschman-Byler, who wrote about the reception his good posture received in Japan in "Two Shores of Zen".) I've been emailing with a friend about the role of intent in zazen (and many other things). David Chadwick has an anecdote from Blanche Hartman, in "Zen Is Right Here": Suzuki Roshi usually encouraged me because I was so down on myself, but once after a one-day sitting, for the first time, I was feeling proud of myself. I went to him and said, “Now I can count every breath. What do I do next?” He leaned forward and said to me fiercely, "Don't ever think that you can sit zazen! That's a big mistake! Zazen sits zazen!" (p.56. Blanche Hartman, City Center, 1970) (from here) That's a pretty stern injunction, isn't it? Apparently most people have pretty good posture, and don't feel they have to concern themselves with anatomy/kinesthesiology in order to relax when they sit, nor do they feel compelled to distinguish particular senses out of necessity in the movement of breath. I don't either, until I've been sitting about 25 minutes (for the anatomy) or 30 minutes (for the necessity). Maybe I can just let myself breathe by about 35, that's the cessation of happiness apart from equanimity as far as I'm concerned.

A powerful beat the rhythm of days, heart-felt the wind that moves us

Agreed, on the intention being happiness--can't help it On chopping wood and carrying water, what about this: 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)

What about intention? I think it's a point Stosh raised.

I'm just amazed that a person in India 2500 years ago described his method for the gradual cessation of the activities, meaning the habitual activity I describe above. I thought I could just get the knack when I was young, after I experienced the cessation of (habitual activity in) inhalation and exhalation (zazen got up and walked across the room), but I had to turn to science because I still couldn't sit the lotus for any length of time without discomfort. Lots of people do have the talent and display the knack, don't they! Hope I don't bust my knees...

To me, karma yoga is the cessation of habitual action, conscious or unconscious--first in speech, then in inhalation and exhalation, then in perception and sensation.

I should mention that although the one-pointedness I experience in the location of my awareness occurs as a necessity of breath, there is a feeling of well-being. There's a description in the Pali Canon of two "cessations" that I think summarize how a feeling of well-being can arise in connection with a necessity of breath, specifically "the cessation of ease apart from equanimity", and "the cessation of happiness apart from equanimity" (Sanyutta Nikaya volume V 215). The equanimity referred to is defined as equanimity with respect to the multiplicity of the senses (Majjhima Nikaya 220), and the necessity that I feel in the movement of breath turns out to be exactly the need for equanimity with respect to all of my senses (with no sense left out). As I have mentioned, for me at this time, a feeling of necessity in the movement of breath seems to speak to my need to include equalibrioception, proprioception, and graviception in my awareness (whoa, checking online for a good description of graviception just now, I discover an article about graviceptors other than the otoliths--news to me!). In addition, I think there is a "suffocation response" panic that makes relaxation and calm a part of the practice that occurs in response to feeling such a necessity of breath (you can read more about the "suffocation response" here). I would say that the inclusion of all the senses in awareness can make the whole experience of a necessity of breath a part of well-being, and draw a person through the suffocation response.

Nourishing my fear "oh, have a little of this"-- ramped up, backing down